A preliminary trial of human zygote culture in Ham's F-10 without hypoxanthine.
OBJECTIVE
This study deals with the suitability of Ham's F-10 without hypoxanthine for early cleavage-stage embryo culture. A high percentage of mouse two-cell embryos developed into morula and blastocysts in Ham's F-10 formulated without hypoxanthine (75.3 and 71.6%, respectively); in contrast, in agreement with previous reports, only 15.4% developed beyond the two-cell stage in Ham's F-10 with hypoxanthine. To begin to evaluate the effect of hypoxanthine on human embryos, a total of 318 human oocytes was fertilized and cultured in Ham's F-10 minus hypoxanthine.


RESULTS
The fertilization, cleavage, and pregnancy percentages in two ovulation induction protocols [human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG)/human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and gonadotropin releasing hormone/hMG/hCG] were 82, 88, and 20 and 83, 91, and 30%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that, in agreement with mouse embryo development, hypoxanthine does not appear to be necessary for human embryo cleavage and its omission from Ham's F-10 may enhance the conditions for culture of early-cleaving human embryos. These observations may lead to a better understanding of critical cell processes during early human embryonic development.
Loutradis
D C
DC
First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Athens Medical School, Alexandra Maternity Hospital, Greece.
Kiessling
A A
AA
Kallianidis
K
K
Siskos
K
K
Creatsas
G
G
Michalas
S
S
Aravantinos
D
D
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000166:cytology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003470:Culture Media; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D019271:Hypoxanthine; D007042:Hypoxanthines; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D011786:Quality Control; D015053:Zygote / Q000166:cytology*
D003470:Culture Media; D007042:Hypoxanthines; D019271:Hypoxanthine