The influence of in-vitro culture versus stimulated and untreated oviductal environment on mouse embryo development and implantation.
A prospective randomised study was performed to evaluate stimulated versus natural oviductal environment in comparison with in-vitro culture for the developmental capacity of mouse embryos. Therefore, embryos of superovulated F1 hybrid CBAxC57Bl females were collected at 17, 22, 41 and 46 h after human chorionic gonadotrophin treatment and randomly divided into five groups. They were either transferred immediately to untreated pseudopregnant females, cultured in vitro for 5, 24 or 29 h before transfer, or cultured in vitro for 96 h to blastocysts. The transfers resulted in an impaired implantation (P < 0.001) and a lower numbers of living fetuses (P < 0.001) when embryos had been exposed longer to the stimulated oviductal environment. Similar results were obtained after a longer period of in-vitro culture (P < 0.05). However when embryos were flushed earlier from the superovulated mice and cultured longer in-vitro until the transfer was performed, the implantation rate was improved (P < 0.01). Blastocyst development, however, was better (P < 0.001) when embryos were flushed later. In conclusion, the stimulated oviductal environment impairs the developmental capacity of embryos in comparison with untreated pseudopregnant females. In-vitro culture is also suboptimal but better than the stimulated oviductal environment.
Van der Auwera
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I
Leuven University Fertility Center, Leuven, Belgium.
Pijnenborg
R
R
Koninckx
P R
PR
D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000502:physiology; D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D046508:Culture Techniques; D010064:Embryo Implantation; D005314:Embryonic and Fetal Development / Q000502:physiology; D005187:Fallopian Tubes / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D011897:Random Allocation; D013268:Stimulation, Chemical; D013480:Superovulation
D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin