title: Effect of human leukemia inhibitory factor on in vitro development of IVF-derived bovine morulae and blastocysts.
abstract: This study was conducted to investigate whether human leukemia inhibitory factor (hLIF) improves the subsequent development of IVF-derived bovine morulae and blastocysts. To obtain IVF-derived bovine morulae, ova were matured and fertilized in vitro and cultured in 0.5 ml of synthetic oviduct fluid (SOF) medium supplemented with 10% human serum (HS) for 5 d at 39 degrees C under a gas atmosphere of 5% CO(2), 5% O(2), 90% N(2). Morulae and early blastocysts at Day 5 of culture were cultured in 0.5 ml of SOF medium with or without 5000 U/ml recombinant hLIF for 2 or 3 d (2 groups). To investigate the effect of addition of hLIF on the subsequent development of morulae, SOF medium was supplemented with 8 mg/ml BSA instead of HS. To test whether hLIF affects the subsequent development of IVF-derived bovine blastocysts, only good blastocysts that developed from SOF medium with or without hLIF at Days 7 and 8 of culture were frozen by a conventinal slow freezing method and again cultured in SOF medium with or without the addition of hLIF for 3 d after thawing (4 groups). Survival of frozen-thawed bovine embryos was evaluated for re-expansion and hatching of blastocysts during 3 d of culture. There was no significant difference in the developmental rate of Day 5 embryos to blastocysts between those cultured with (47.8%) and without (47.6%) addition of hLIF. However, the addition of hLIF before freezing significantly increased the hatching rate of IVF-derived bovine morulae (P < 0.05), whereas addition of hLIF after thawing did not increase the subsequent development of blastocysts. These results suggest that hLIF added at the Day 5 morula stage may contribute to bovine embryonic development through the hatching process.
authors.affiliation: Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology, KIST, 52 Oun-Dong, Yusong-Gu, Taejon 305-333, Korea.
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mogoe
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukui