Toxic effects of perfluorooctanoic acid on mouse oocytes

Objective  The purpose of this study was to investigate the toxic effect of perfuorooctanoic aid(PFOA) on mouse oocytes.

Method  One hundred and sixty 6-week-old Kunming female mice with similar body weight were divided randomly into four groups, with five replicates in each group and eight mice in each replicate. After 7 days of adaptation, the mice were fed with different doses of PFOA for 14 days. The daily doses for control, low, medium, and high dose groups were 0, 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg respectively. Then the mice were superovulated with injection of pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), and the oocytes were obtained for detection.

Result  Compared to the control group, the oocyte maturation rates of mice in the middle and high dose groups decreased by 14.28% and 28.17% respectively, while the contents of reactive oxygen species in oocytes increased by 135% and 177% respectively. The proportions of β-tubulin with abnormal morphology and irregular chromosomes in oocytes increased by 65.06% and 75.60% respectively. In addition, the proportions of (Phospho-histone H2A.X, P-H2A.X) in oocytes of low, medium and high dose groups increased by 47%, 133% and 1.71% respectively compared with the control.

Conclusion  Mice fed with PFOA may decrease their oocyte maturation rate by inducing the increase of reactive oxygen species, DNA double strand break and cytoskeleton damage in oocytes.