Human Reproduction, Vol. 3, No. 8, pp. 978-989, 1988
© 1988 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
research-article |
Cytoskeletal organization in fresh, aged and spontaneously activated human oocytes
Departments of Anatomy and Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Cambridge Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DY, UK
The cytoskeleton of the human oocyte (microtobules and actln filaments) has been examined using fluorescence microscopy. In unfertilized oocytes in metaphase of the second meiotic division, microtubules were found exclusively within the spindle which was located at the periphery of the cell and oriented radially, with its long axis perpendicular to the surface membrane. The spindle was anastral and slightly pointed at each pole, the chromosomes being arranged on a metaphase plate at the equator. When treated with taxol, the oocyte spindle became astral and microtubules appeared in the cortex of the oocyte in the form of small strands or bundles. Polymerized actin was found to be present in a dense filamentous layer throughout the cortex of the unfertilized oocyte. Aged unfertilized oocytes displayed an increased inddence of disrupted or abnonnal cytoskeletal organization. In parthenogenetically activated oocytes in anaphase and telophase, microtubules were again found predominantly in the spindle but in addition, cortical strands or bundles of microtubules were often present. Oocytes in late telophase sometimes showed the presence of a concentrated ring of actin in the deavage furrow between the oocyte and the second polar body. Activated oocytes in early interphase contained a dense cortical mesh of microtubules and a midhody remnant between the oocyte and the polar body. The cytoskeletal organizations of mouse and human oocytes are compared.
Key words: oocyte/cytoskeleton/microtubule/taxol/microfilamant/parthenogenesis
1Present address: Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, 1459 1Al, Canada
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