Xanthoangelol promotes early embryonic development of porcine embryos by relieving endoplasmic reticulum stress and enhancing mitochondrial function

Research question: Does the addition of an antioxidant agent, xanthoangelol (XAG), to the culture medium improve in-vitro development of porcine embryos?Design: Early porcine embryos were incubated in the presence of 0.5 mmol/l XAG in in-vitro culture (IVC) media and analysed using various techniques, including immunofluorescence staining, reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection, TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL), and reverse transcription followed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).Results: The addition of 0.5 mu mol/l XAG to IVC media increased the rate of blastocyst formation, total cell number, glutathione concentrations and proliferative capacity, while reducing reactive oxygen species concentrations, apoptosis and autophagy. In addition, upon XAG treatment, the abundance of mitochondria and mitochondrial membrane potential significantly increased (both P < 0.001), and the genes related to mitochondrial biogenesis (TFAM, NRF1 and NRF2) were significantly up-regulated (all P < 0.001). XAG treatment also significantly increased the endoplasmic reticulum abundance (P < 0.001) and reduced the concentrations of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) marker GRP78 (P = 0.003) and expression of the ERS-related genes EIF2a, GRP78, CHOP, ATF6, ATF4, uXBP1 and sXBP 1 (all P < 0.001).Conclusion: XAG promotes early embryonic development in porcine embryos in vitro by reducing oxidative stress, enhancing mitochondrial function and relieving ERS.