title: Effect of glutamine on preimplantation mouse embryo development in vitro.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this research was to study the independent effect of the amino acid glutamine on preimplantation mouse embryo development in vitro.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two-cell stage mouse embryos were cultured in human tubal fluid medium in the presence and absence of 1 mmol/L of glutamine. Outcomes for morphology and cleavage rates were compared with Fisher's and Mann-Whitney's tests, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Glutamine increased the proportion of embryos that developed to the blastocyst stage (86.4%) compared with those cultured without glutamine (59.1%) (P =.052). The percentages of embryos developing to the morula or hatching blastocyst stages were comparable in the 2 groups. Blastocyst total cell numbers were significantly higher in the glutamine group (34+/-1.7 vs 18.5+/-3.5, respectively; values are mean+/-SEM, P =.044).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The amino acid glutamine independently improves preimplantation mouse embryo development in vitro. Further studies are needed to examine the applicability of these results to humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USA.
authors.forename: Youssef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rezk
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huff
authors.forename: Botros
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rizk
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000187:drug effects*; D001757:Blastomeres / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D047108:Embryonic Development; D005314:Embryonic and Fetal Development / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005973:Glutamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D023421:Models, Animal; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D011247:Pregnancy; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D005973:Glutamine