%0 Journal Article
%T Lower developmental potential of rat zygotes produced by ooplasmic injection of testicular spermatozoa versus cauda epididymal spermatozoa.
%A Ide M
%A Saito I
%A Sanbo M
%A Kanatsu-Shinohara M
%A Shinohara T
%A Hirabayashi M
%A Hochi S
%J J Reprod Dev
%V 70
%N 4
%D 2024 Aug 7
%M 38735740
%F 2.215
%R 10.1262/jrd.2024-030
%X Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is clinically used to treat obstructive/nonobstructive azoospermia. This study compared the efficacy of ICSI with cauda epididymal and testicular sperm in Wistar (WI) and Brown-Norway (BN) rats. The transfer of ICSI oocytes with cryopreserved epididymal and testicular WI sperm resulted in offspring production of 26.2% and 3.7%-4.7%, respectively (P < 0.05). Treatments for artificial oocyte activation (AOA) and acrosome removal improved pronuclear formation in BN-ICSI oocytes; however, only AOA treatment was effective in producing offspring (3.7%-6.5%). In the case of ICSI with testicular sperm (TESE-ICSI), one offspring (0.6%) was derived from the BN-TESE-ICSI oocytes. The application of AOA or a hypo-osmotic sperm suspension did not improve the production of TESE-ICSI offspring. Thus, outbred WI rat offspring can be produced by using ICSI and less efficiently by using TESE-ICSI. Challenges in producing offspring by using ICSI/TESE-ICSI in inbred BN strain require further investigation.