Elevated intracellular pH appears in aged oocytes and causes oocyte aneuploidy associated with the loss of cohesion in mice.

ABSTRACT: Increases in the aneuploidy rate caused by the deterioration of cohesion with increasing maternal age have been well documented. However, the molecular mechanism for the loss of cohesion in aged oocytes remains unknown. In this study, we found that intracellular pH (pHi) was elevated in aged oocytes, which might disturb the structure of the cohesin ring to induce aneuploidy. We observed for the first time that full-grown germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes displayed an increase in pHi with advancing age in CD1 mice. Furthermore, during the in vitro oocyte maturation process, the pHi was maintained at a high level, up to ∼7.6, in 12-month-old mice. Normal pHi is necessary to maintain protein localization and function. Thus, we put forward a hypothesis that the elevated oocyte pHi might be related

SUBMITTER: Cheng JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5026820 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature