title: Donor and recipient rat strains affect full-term development of one-cell zygotes cultured to morulae/blastocysts.
abstract: The present study was conducted to examine the developmental potential to offspring of rat embryos cultured from 1-cell to morula/blastocyst stage. Pronuclear zygotes from Wistar x Wistar or (SD x DA) x Wistar strains were cultured in modified rat 1-cell embryo culture medium (mR1ECM) for 96 h in 5% CO(2) in air at 37 C. The proportion of the 3-way cross hybrid zygotes developing into morula/blastocyst stage (74%) was higher than that of the Wistar zygotes (66%). Day-5 morulae/blastocysts developed in vitro were transferred into Day-3 or -4 pseudopregnant recipients of Wistar or SD x DA strain. The transfer of cultured embryos resulted in the birth of offspring at 13-59%, while that of non-cultured control blastocysts showed birth rates of 35-65%. The best offspring rate of cultured embryos (59%) was obtained when the hybrid 1-cell zygotes were cultured in mR1ECM medium and transferred into the 2-days earlier uteri of SD x DA recipients. These results suggest that genetic background of recipients as well as donors is a possible factor affecting full-term development of rat morulae/blastocysts derived from 1-cell stage zygotes cultured in vitro.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Aichi, Japan.
authors.forename: Megumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Ayako
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hochi
authors.forename: Masumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirabayashi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D002455:Cell Division; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003470:Culture Media / Q000494:pharmacology; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009028:Morula; D011247:Pregnancy; D011270:Pregnancy, Animal; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013045:Species Specificity; D013997:Time Factors; D015053:Zygote / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media