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The microinjection of retroviral vectors into the perivitelline spaces of MII-stage oocytes increased production of transgenic bovine embryos. However, oocytes have various sizes of perivitelline space, and there is the tendency that the oocyte membranes are damageable by micropipettes during the injection of retroviral vectors into perivitelline spaces or oocytes. Thus, it was not always possible to stably inject retroviral vector into perivitelline spaces of oocytes. Here we used sucrose to minimize the damage of the oocyte membrane. When the oocytes were suspended in 0.5% sucrose, poor quality oocytes showed rough cytoplasmic membranes, while good quality oocytes maintained smooth membranes. However, when the tatters were subjected to in vitro fertilization, no significant differences were observed in cleavage rates (82% of control Vs. 84% of sucrose treated oocytes). The Same trends were obtained from the oocytes fertilized after microinjection of LNbeta-EGFP and LNC-hGH genes into the perivitelline spares. The rates of cleavage and blastocyst from microinjection of LNbeta-EGFP genes were 81 and 25%, and from microinjection of LNC-hGM genes were 53 and 30%, respectively. The result indicated that microinjected oocytes could develop to the blastocyst stages after in vitro fertilization with no significant difference from control group. Moreover, the integration of hGH-gene (by PCR analysis) was detected in 52% of infected cleaved embryos and the expression of EGFP-gene (under a fluoresrence microscope) was also observed in 34% of infected blastocyst. These results indicated that 0.5% sucrose treatment could be an efficient method not only to select good quality embryos but also to inject retroviral vectors into perivitelline spares without any harm and hence improving developmental rates.
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