title: Promotion of human blastocyst formation by red cell hemolysate.
abstract: Recently, blastocyst transfer has been increasingly performed to improve the implantation rate achieved by in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. This has created the need for new culture methods to improve in vitro blastulation. Culture with erythrocyte hemolysate promotes the development of early mouse embryos due to an antioxidant effect. The present study investigated whether erythrocyte hemolysate could also promote blastulation of human embryos. Eighty surplus embryos were obtained from 15 patients who gave informed consent. These embryos were cultured for 2 to 7 days after oocyte retrieval in medium with or without erythrocyte hemolysate. Blastocyst formation was observed in 53% and 28% of the embryos grown in hemolysate-supplemented and control cultures, respectively. The blastulation rate was significantly higher in hemolysate-supplemented culture than in control group (p = 0.02). These results suggest that culture medium supplemented with erythrocyte hemolysate may promote the blastulation of human embryos.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Osaka City University Medical School, Osaka, Japan. musohal@nifty.com
authors.forename: Ayako
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Musoh
authors.forename: Seiichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamamasu
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tokuyama
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Musoh
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujino
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ishiko
authors.forename: Sachio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ogita
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000502:physiology*; D003470:Culture Media; D005314:Embryonic and Fetal Development; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006461:Hemolysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media