Fig. 6.

In vitro maturation of COCs in low glucose and low oxygen significantly upregulates expression of genes involved in anaerobic metabolism and apoptosis. Relative mRNA abundance of 7 genes related to metabolism (SLC2A1, GAPDH, ENO1 and G6PD), apoptosis genes (BAX and BNIP3), and a hypoxia response gene (CA9) in COCs matured for 21 hours in two different oxygen concentrations (20% or 7%), and two different glucose concentrations (2.3 mM or 5.6 mM) (Experiment 1, 2×2 factorial design). All COCs were matured in 10 μl media / COC and ~40 COCs per drop (between 35 and 42 COCs). Data presented as mean ± SEM (n = 4 independent replicates with 10 COC from at each replicate/treatment group utilised for analysis of gene expression). Means with different superscripts ab indicate significant differences between treatment groups (P < 0.05), while xy indicate a trend between treatment groups (0.1>P>0.05)