title: Enhanced effect of glycyl-L-glutamine on mouse preimplantation embryos in vitro.
abstract: A comparison of the effects of replacing L -glutamine with either glycyl-L-glutamine or alanyl-L-glutamine in a KSOM-type medium on the development of mouse preimplantation embryos in vitro has been made. Alanyl-L-glutamine has no significant effect on the rates of blastocyst formation, onset or completion of hatching, and on the numbers of inner cell mass and trophectoderm cells that develop. Glycyl-L-glutamine has no effect on the rate of blastocyst formation; it stimulates slightly the onset of hatching, but significantly increases the numbers of inner cell mass and trophectoderm cells that develop. Embryo transfer experiments comparing media containing either glutamine or glycyl-L-glutamine have not produced any gross abnormal fetal development. Recently, alanyl-L-glutamine has been used to replace glutamine in media for the culture of human preimplantation embryos. The results in this paper suggest that glycyl-L-glutamine may be a better choice of dipeptide.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. john_biggers@hms.harvard.edu
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Biggers
authors.forename: Lynda K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: McGinnis
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lawitts
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry; D004151:Dipeptides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D046149:Embryo Culture Techniques; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005973:Glutamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D015053:Zygote / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D003470:Culture Media; D004151:Dipeptides; D005973:Glutamine; C039788:glycylglutamine; C054122:alanylglutamine