70 PROTEIN EXPRESSION OF THE INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTOR 1 RECEPTOR DURING BOVINE PRE-IMPLANTATION EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) is essential for regulating physiological processes such as growth and development of fetal and placental tissues (Bauer et al. 1998, Fowden 2003). During early embryonic development, IGF1 plays an important role, as it leads to a reduction of apoptosis and decreases early embryonic mortality (Block et al. 2007). The signal transduction of IGF1 is carried out by its specific binding to the membrane-embedded insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R). The expression of IGF1R is a potential quality marker of in vitro produced embryos (Liu et al. 1997, Yaseen et al. 2001). Thus far, analysis of the relative amount of specific transcripts is the method of choice to study bovine pre-implantation embryos, as information on protein expression is scarce. Therefore, it is of great interest to analyse protein expression and to determine if and to which extent these results differ from results obtained in previous mRNA expression analyses. In the present study, a total of 4800 cumulus-oocyte-complexes were deployed in 60 in vitro produced runs. The cleavage rates averaged 57.4 ± 7.3% and blastocyst rates were 27.6 ± 7.5% at Day 8 of culture. Embryos at the blastocyst stage were frozen and stored at –80°C for further experiments. The protein expression of the IGF1R during early embryonic development was investigated by Western blot analysis testing 8 different antibodies. Seven of these antibodies were commercially available and mainly not tested in the bovine species. Only 1 of these antibodies resulted in a weak signal for the IGF1R protein in bovine blastocysts. Therefore, a specific peptide antibody against 2 peptide sequences of the α unit of the bovine IGF1R was produced. The analysis of the IGF1R protein with this antibody resulted in the determination of a signal in a pool of 100 blastocysts, which was weaker than in the positive control (20 μg of bovine liver protein extract). The detection of the IGF1R protein localization was possible in all different stages of embryonic development from the zygote to the expanded blastocyst using immunfluorescence staining with the specific peptide antibody. The IGF1R protein was mainly expressed in the plasma membrane of single blastomeres and also weakly in the cytoplasm. As the early bovine embryo expresses IGF1R throughout all stages, the main function of IGF1 in embryonic development needs to be further elucidated. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the H. Wilhelm Schaumann Foundation (Hamburg, Germany).