Developmental competence of mammalian oocytes-insights into molecular research and the promise of microfluidic technology: a review

Developmental competence of female gametes determines their maturation ability, successful fertilisation, and proper zygote formation. Oocyte quality may be assessed by expression profiling of several gene markers such as Cx43, TGFB, GDF9, BMP, Lox and Pdia5 that determine the biological features of oocytes. Conversely, several other extrinsic factors, including follicular size or heat shock may significantly influence oocyte quality and ability to grow and develop during folliculo- and oogenesis. However, using molecular methods for evaluation of oocyte quality often leads to destruction of an analysed cell. Therefore, there is an increased requirement to seek new non-invasive methods of oocyte-embryo quality assessment. Here we describe the Lab-on-Chip system based on microfluidic technology, which is the first parametric and objective device for evaluation of oocyte developmental competence using spectral images. In this review several extrinsic factors and molecular markers of oocyte developmental competence are discussed. Furthermore, based on our previous studies, we discuss the possibility of applying the spectrophotometric system (Lab-on-Chip) in both biomedical and reproductive research in domestic animals.