Growth and Developmental Competence of Pre-pubertal Mammalian Oocytes: Applications of Assisted Reproductive Techniques

Maturation and fertilization in vitro and further development to full terms of pre-pubertal mammalian oocytes has been confirmed in several mammalian species. Fetal and postnatal development of female germ cells has been described. Furthermore, oocyte maturation and fertilization processes in addition to further embryonic development were described of mammalian oocytes obtained during pre-pubertal, pubertal, follicular and luteal stages. In addition, the assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs) were used for potential exploiting of pre-pubertal oocytes. The ARTs included were maturation and culture conditions, fertilization procedures in addition to reconstruction of artificial oocytes. Therefore, the articles concerning mammalian oocyte growth and development during fetal and postnatal periods in addition to maturation and further embryonic development were used for writing the manuscript and the articles were collected from databases of ScienceDirect, PubMed and google scholar. Maturation occurred for GV oocytes obtained from fetal stage but they were unable to develop further. On the other hand, pre-pubertal oocytes obtained from post-natal stage of different mammalian species were able to mature and develop to full terms after fertilization and culture in vitro. The female age were differed between mammalian species to collect competent pre-pubertal oocytes. The applied assisted reproductive techniques were resulted in significant substantial increase of pre-pubertal oocyte development. It could be concluded that pre-pubertal oocytes could be used to shortening the interval between generations and exploitation of genetically superior animals through assisted reproductive techniques.