title: Morphology and proportion of inner cell mass of bovine blastocysts fertilized in vitro and in vivo.
abstract: The morphology and proportion of inner cell mass (ICM) of bovine blastocysts cultured in vitro or in vivo in rabbit oviducts after in-vitro fertilization of in-vitro matured follicular oocytes were compared with those of blastocysts fertilized in vivo by a differential fluorochrome staining technique. The delineation of each ICM cell was improved by the transfer of embryos derived from in-vitro fertilization to a rabbit oviduct although the cell-cell contacts of ICM cells were not as tight as those from in-vivo fertilization. The proportions (15.8 and 14.9%) of ICM in blastocysts cultured in vitro at early and expanded stages were significantly lower than those cultured in rabbit oviducts after in-vitro fertilization and fertilized in vivo. These results show that the transfer of bovine embryos derived from in-vitro fertilization to the rabbit oviduct increased the proliferation of ICM cells to the level of embryos fertilized in vivo although the cell-cell contact of ICM cell is not improved by the process.
authors.affiliation: NODAI Research Institute, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iwasaki
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoshiba
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ushijima
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakahara
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000166:cytology*; D002417:Cattle; D002450:Cell Communication; D002455:Cell Division; D005187:Fallopian Tubes / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005306:Fertilization / Q000502:physiology; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D011817:Rabbits