Effect of glutamine on preimplantation mouse embryo development in vitro.
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.
Rezk
Youssef
Y
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USA.
Huff
Chris
C
Rizk
Botros
B
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
D005973:Glutamine