الفهرس 
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Abstract
Buffalo enhances the agricultural economy of the country greatly by supplying milk and meat. The main goal of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) is obtaining a maximum birth of healthy offspring. In cattle, cathepsin B activity is related to the quality of the COCs and embryos and their competence can be increased by inactivation. In buffalo, the effect of inhibition of cathepsin B on oocytes and embryos development has not been evaluated before. In this study, E-64 was used as a cathepsin B inhibitor with different concentrations. After cathepsin B inhibition during in vitro maturation (IVM) there was a significant improvement of the maturation rates of buffalo oocytes. Moreover, E-64 supplementation improved significantly the subsequent developmental competence of the oocytes. Higher penetration and fertilization rates were found after fertilization of the E-64 treated oocytes than control. In addition, the cultured embryos resultant from E-64 treated oocytes showed a significant higher cleavage, morula and blastocyst rates on day 2, 5 and 7 respectively. The best E-64 concentrations in all experiments are 5 and 10 µM were. In conclusion, E-64 inhibits cathepsin B and improves oocytes maturation and developmental competence in buffalo oocytes.