Linoleic acid reduces apoptosis via NF-kB during the in vitro development of induced parthenogenic porcine embryos

Abstract

Fatty acid has a various role in preimplantation embryo development. Especially, Linoleic acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, has been reported to affect the apoptosis pathway via nuclear transcription factorkappa B. But to date, the function of NF-kB has not been demonstrated in porcine preimplantation embryos. We demonstrated that linoleic acid had a positive effect on embryo development at a certain concentration(25 mM), but developmental failure was observed at higher concentration. Furthermore, the expression level of NF-kB increased, unlike that of IL-6, as the concentration of linoleic acid increased. Interestingly, the concentration of NF-kB was found to increase even at the concentration of linoleic acid at which embryo development decreased. We found that pro-apoptotic gene expression was downregulated in the linoleic acid-treated group. It was also found that M OE-1, an anti-apoptotic gene known to be unaffected by IL-6, was found to be increased at the mRNA level in the linoleic acid-treated group. As the concentration of NF-kB increased, the nuclear translocation of C-JUN gradually increased dependent on the linoleic acid concentration. It was confirmed that NF-kB is an important factor in porcine embryos by treated ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (APDC 0.1 mM, an inhibitor of NF-kB) affected NF-kB protein expression, IL-6 expression, and blastocyst production. These data supported porcine embryos can use exogenous linoleic acid as a metabolic energy source via NF-kB. (c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.