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β‐Glucuronidase activity in mouse oocytes, mouse preimplantation embryos, and human gametes
Author(s) -
van Blerk M.,
Lissens W.,
Nijs M.,
van der Linden M.,
van Steirteghem A. C.,
Liebaers I.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
prenatal diagnosis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.956
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1097-0223
pISSN - 0197-3851
DOI - 10.1002/pd.1970110805
Subject(s) - blastocyst , andrology , embryo , biology , sperm , embryogenesis , beta (programming language) , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , computer science , programming language
Abstract A microfluorimetric assay was designed to monitor β‐glucuronidase (β‐gluc) activity during the early development of mouse embryos and was also applied to measure β‐gluc activity in human sperm cells and single human oocytes. Mouse oocytes and preimplantation embryos at different stages of development, failed fertilized human oocytes, and human sperm cells were collected, and β‐gluc activity was analysed. In the mouse, β‐gluc activity could be measured starting from the morula stage on in a pooled sample of 15 embryos and at blasto‐cyst formation in one single embryo. β‐Gluc activity was low in human sperm cells. The enzyme could be readily demonstrated in 87 per cent of non‐fertilized human oocytes. Considerable variation in β‐gluc activity was noticed between individual oocytes.