Bovine Oocyte Characterization by Microfluidic Aspiration-Assisted Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy

Inhalt:
This work presents a microfluidic aspiration-assisted electrical impedance spectroscopy system (MAEIS) to characterize bovine oocytes during a standard in vitro maturation (IVM) procedure. The hardening of the zona pellucida, which is a gelatinous outer layer of extracellular matrix, was characterized by measuring the electrical impedance at oocytes which were hydroynamically trapped at a microhole at a stable aspiration pressure. After EIS measurements, DNA staining was applied to determine the germinal vesicle (GV), germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), metaphase I (MI), and metaphase II (MII) stages of nuclear maturation. The data showed that the impedance of bovine oocytes increased from GV to GVBD and decreased in the following MI and MII stages indicating that the maturation status of the bovine oocytes can be distinguished via EIS measurement.