Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 2|pp 1256—1271

Ubiquinol-10 delays postovulatory oocyte aging by improving mitochondrial renewal in pigs

Ying-Jie Niu¹, Wenjun Zhou¹, Zheng-Wen Nie¹, Dongjie Zhou¹, Yong-Nan Xu², Sun A. Ock³, Chang-Guo Yan², Xiang-Shun Cui¹

¹Department of Animal Science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, South Korea
²College of Agriculture, Yanbian University, Yanji, China
³Animal Biotechnology Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Jeonju, South Korea

Received: October 5, 2019Accepted: December 25, 2019Published: January 20, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Niu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Ubiquinol-10, the reduced form of coenzyme Q10, protects mammalian cells from oxidative damage and enhances mitochondrial activity. However, the protective effect of ubiquinol-10 on mammalian oocytes is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of ubiquinol-10 on porcine oocytes during postovulatory aging. Metaphase II oocytes were selected as fresh oocytes and further cultured for 48 h with different concentrations of ubiquinol-10 (0–400 μM) in vitro as a postovulatory aging model. After choosing the optimal concentration of ubiquinol-10 (100 μM) that maintained oocyte morphology and developmental competence during the progression of aging, the oocytes were randomly divided into five groups: fresh, control-24 h, ubiquinol-24 h, control-48 h, and ubiquinol-48 h. The results revealed that ubiquinol-10 significantly prevented aging-induced oxidative stress, GSH reduction, cytoskeleton impairment, apoptosis, and autophagy. Mitochondrial biogenesis (SIRT1 and PGC-1α) and mitophagy (PINK1 and PARKIN)-related proteins were decreased during aging. Addition of ubiquinol-10 prevented the aging-induced reduction of these proteins. Consequently, although mitochondrial content was decreased, the number of active mitochondria and ATP level were significantly increased upon treatment with ubiquinol-10. Thus, ubiquinol-10 has beneficial effects on porcine postovulatory aging oocytes owing to its antioxidant properties and ability to promote mitochondrial renewal.