Prolonged hypothermic storage of oocytes of the European common frog Rana temporaria in a gas mixture of oxygen and carbon monoxide

The maximum hypothermic storage time of amphibian oocytes is several hours, which is due to the peculiarities of the structure of the cell envelope. The authors of this paper have already demonstrated the possibility of increasing the storage period of unfertilized oocytes of the common frog (Rana temporaria) up to 5-7 days. The aim of the current study was to determine the possibility of using a 6.5 atm gaseous mixture of carbon monoxide and oxygen, for prolonged hypothermic preservation of unfertilized oocytes for 4 to 12 days. After four days, oocytes stored under CO+O2 conditions exhibited fertilization and hatching rates that were 1.6 and 2.2-fold higher than control, respectively. While no oocytes in the control group survived to day twelve, oocytes held under CO +O2 gas exhibited a 39±14% (38 out of 99 oocytes in total) fertilization rate, however only 1±2% (1/99) of those hatched. This approach is promising for the storage of genetic material from female amphibians, particularly in respect to managing and restoring endangered species, but may also be applicable to oocytes of other classes of vertebrates.

Editors' roundup: April 2023

The IUPAB Biophysical Reviews journal provides a regular forum, known as the "Editors' Roundup," that is available to editorial board members of any biophysics-related journal to contribute a personal recommendation of articles appearing within their publications. This latest Issue of the Editors' Roundup carries recommendations from editorial board members associated with the following journals, Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics, Biophysics, and the Biophysical Reviews journal.

Examination of rabbit liver by ultrasound

The article provides information on the study of the mechanical properties of isolated rabbit liver cells in terms of density, compressibility and ultra-sonic velocity. It was found that the values of the studied characteristics are mainly determined by the water content in the cells. The density, compressibility, and velocity of ultrasound in the cellular material are interconnected by a linear relationship.