The Effect of Different Vitrification and Staining Protocols on the Visibility of the Nuclear Maturation Stage of Equine Oocytes

In this study, we compared two staining protocols assessing the nuclear chromatin stage of equine oocytes after vitrification using permeable and nonpermeable cryoprotectants. Slaughterhouse-derived oocytes (n = 155) were obtained from a total of 32 mares and in vitro matured in M199 medium for 42 hours at 38.5°C in 5% CO2. In the first experiment, two concentrations of Hoechst 33342 (HO) were tested (10 μg/mL; P1 and 2.5 μg/mL; P2) combined with 50 μg/mL of propidium iodide as staining protocols to evaluate the visibility of matured oocytes (n = 44). In the second experiment, 111 oocytes were evaluated using the staining protocol P2, before (C, control) and after vitrification following a two-step conventional protocol with (15% dimethyl sulfoxide, 15% ethylene glycol, and 0.5 M sucrose; V1) or without (1 M sucrose; V2) using permeable cryoprotectants. Our results showed that P2 provided a higher percentage of oocytes with outstanding visibility of the nuclear chromatin stage (52.17%; P < .05) in comparison with P1 (19.04%). In the second experiment, no cryoprotectant-free vitrified oocytes reached the metaphase II maturation stage. This result was significantly lower (P < .05) than conventional vitrification (15.38%) and both lower in comparison with the nonvitrified control group (42.11%). In conclusion, permeable cryoprotectant-free vitrification of equine oocytes obtained poor results and therefore cannot be considered an alternative to vitrification using permeable cryoprotectants. In addition, a staining protocol with a low concentration of HO is recommended to evaluate the nuclear chromatin stage of equine oocytes after in vitro maturation.