Research Progress in Parthenogenetic Activation of Mammalian Oocytes

Parthenogenetic activation is a procedure that an oocyte at meiosis Ⅱ stage is activated into mitosis by some chemical or physical stimulation other than a sperm and the embryo is formed in the absence of any contribution from a male gamete.The activation of oocyte is the result of calcium ion oscillations and deactivation of some cytokines such as maturation promoting factor,mitogen-activated protein kinase and cytostatic factor.Parthenogenetic activation is the key technique for nuclear transfer and is also an effective method to study fertilization mechanism and developmental mechanism in mammals.The mechanism of parthenogenetic activation of oocytes and the mechanism of their parthenogenesis were introduced.