Plasma membrane water permeabilities of human oocytes: The temperature dependence of water movement in individual cells

✍ Scribed by J. Hunter; A. Bernard; B. Fuller; J. McGrath; R. W. Shaw

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 539 KB
• Volume: 150
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9541
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1041500123

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Membrane water permeability values were measured in individual fresh human pre‐ovulatory oocytes using real time microscopy in a microscope diffusion chamber. The cells were exposed to anisosmotic conditions, their volume responses measured, and from these data the Lp values were computed employing the Kedem‐Katchalsky analyses of irreversible thermodynamics. Lp values were measured at four temperatures for each oocyte between 37°C and 10°C, and the temperature‐related Arrhenius activation energy (Ea) calculated. It was apparent that individual oocytes exhibited a wide range of Lp values; at 37°C Lp values ranged between 0.33 and 1.80 μm/atm/min. However, each oocyte exhibited the expected inverse linear correlation between Lp and temperature, with high linear correlations (R^2^ values between 0.73 and 0.96). A mean value for Ea of 8.61 ± 5.11 Kcal/mol was computed. It is apparent that pre‐ovulatory human oocytes express a range of biological diversity in terms of membrane water transport, and this fact needs to be considered when attempting to formulate cryopreservation protocols for storage of these oocytes.