6-Gingerol Improves In Vitro Porcine Embryo Development by Reducing Oxidative Stress

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Excellent quality of early embryonic development contributes to a successful pregnancy. At present, most in vitro cultured embryos can only develop to the blastocyst stage at most, because an in vitro culture (IVC) system cannot replace the physiological environment in vivo. During IVC, excessive accumulated reactive oxygen species in embryos cannot be easily metabolized, which will cause oxidative stress and suppress embryo development. In this study, we found that anti-oxidation capacity of early embryo was improved by adding 6-gingerol to IVC. Moreover, 6-gingerol can also improve blastocyst rate, cell proliferation, mitochondrial function, inhibit cell apoptosis, autophagy, and regulate functional genes expression in blastocyst. These results are helpful to optimize the early embryo culture system, and thus provide a theoretical basis for improving the early embryo quality and the efficiency of subsequent pregnancy. ABSTRACT: 6-Gingerol, the main active ingredient in ginger, exhibits a variety of biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities, and can affect cell development. However, the effects of 6-gingerol on mammalian reproductive processes, especially early embryonic development, are unclear. This study explored whether 6-gingerol can be used to improve the quality of in vitro-cultured porcine embryos. The results showed that 5 μM 6-gingerol significantly increased the blastocyst formation rates of porcine early embryos. 6-Gingerol attenuated intracellular reactive oxygen species accumulation and autophagy, increased intracellular glutathione levels, and increased mitochondrial activity. In addition, 6-gingerol upregulated NANOG, SRY-box transcription factor 2, cytochrome c oxidase subunit II, mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase, and RPTOR independent companion of MTOR complex 2 while downregulating Caspase 3, baculoviral IAP repeat containing 5, autophagy related 12, and Beclin 1. Most importantly, 6-gingerol significantly increased the levels of p-extracellular regulated protein kinase 1/2 while reducing the levels of p-c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1/2/3 and p-p38. These results indicate that 6-gingerol can promote the development of porcine early embryos in vitro.