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Glutamine and the maintenance of meiotic arrest in mouse oocytes: Influence of culture medium, glucose, and cumulus cells

The selection of culture media and supplements therein has a tremendous impact on the regulation of oocyte maturation in vitro. In the present study, we have evaluated how altering the levels of glutamine in the presence or absence of glucose affects meiotic arrest in cumulus cell‐enclosed oocytes (CEO) and denuded oocytes (DO) when cultured in either the simple medium M16 or the more complex Eagle's minimum essential medium (MEM). We have also tested the effectiveness of follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH) in triggering germinal vesicle breakdown (GVB) and purine de novo synthesis in differing MEM culture conditions. When DO were cultured 17–18 hr in hypoxanthine (HX)‐ or dbcAMP‐supplemented M16 medium, neither glucose nor glutamine had any effect on oocyte maturation, with dbcAMP the more effective inhibitor. In the absence of glutamine, cumulus cells promoted meiotic resumption, since significantly lower levels of meiotic arrest were maintained in CEO than in DO by either HX or dbcAMP, but addition of the amino acid dose‐dependently decreased the maturation percentage in CEO below that observed in DO. In MEM, glutamine and glucose again had little effect on the maturation of DO, although the percentage of maturing DO in HX‐supplemented medium was about 20% lower than that in M16 medium. In the absence of glucose, high levels of maturation were observed in CEO in glutamine‐free medium that were dose‐dependently lowered by the amino acid. However, when glucose was present, CEO were as effectively arrested as DO when glutamine was absent, with no further effect of the amino acid. This inhibitory action of glucose was dependent on the essential amino acids present in MEM. The effects of glutamine were not due to changes in metabolic coupling between the oocyte and cumulus cells. Measurement of purine de novo synthesis indicated that the maintenance of meiotic arrest as well as FSH induction of meiotic resumption were associated with increases in purine synthesis. We conclude that glucose and glutamine act cooperatively to promote the synthesis of new purine compounds within the somatic compartment and that the timing and duration of such synthesis determines whether meiotic resumption will be suppressed or promoted. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 66: 90–97, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.