Quantitative studies of changes in cortical granule number and distribution in the mouse oocyte during meiotic maturation

Cortical granules (CGs) undergo a substantial change in distribution in the mouse oocyte cortex during meiotic maturation. In order to determine the mechanism of their change in distribution near the time of ovulation, CG density, total number per oocyte, and domain areas were quantitated. CGs were visualized microscopically by Lens culinaris agglutinin-biotin and Texas red-strepavidin fluorescence as well as by electron microscopy. Immature germinal vesicle stage (GV) oocytes from adult mice had a continuous cortical localization with some interior granules. Mature oocytes had an asymmetric cortical distribution with a CG-free domain, overlying the meiosis II metaphase spindle, occupying 40% of the cortex. The mean CG densities of the granule-occupied cortex of mature oocytes and the entire cortex of GV oocytes were 43 and 34 CGs/100 micron 2, respectively. The mean total numbers of CGs/oocyte were 4127 (mature) and 7440 (GV), and staining was absent in fertilized oocytes with two pronuclei. Calcium ionophore (A23187)-activated mature oocytes had a mean total number of 1235 CGs, some of which may have been in the process of exocytosis. The first polar body had few CGs, and thus was unlikely to account for the difference in CG number between GV and mature oocytes. The smaller total number and higher density of CGs in mature mouse oocytes suggests that both exocytosis and redistribution are plausible mechanisms for the development of the CG-free domain. Prefertilization exocytosis could account for the locus of sperm penetration which others have reported to occur in the hemisphere opposite the meiotic spindle in the mouse.