title: Morphological study of the bovine blastocyst with phase contrast microscopy.
abstract: The morpholoqical appearance of 40 bovine blastocysts. collected from single ovulating heifers 7 days after oestrus was evaluated with the aid of a phase contrast inverted microscope. Out of 40 blastocysts, 17 were classified normal (N), 14 in the process of degeneration (IPD) and 9 degenerated (D). There was no difference in the mean diameters of the three groups of blastocysts, whereas the mean diameters of cell mass was bigger in N than IPD and D blastocysts. This difference was highly significant (P<.005). The mean number of cells was greater in normal than in abnormal (99 vs 58). This difference was highly significant (P<.005). The results reported here indicate that the criteria used for classification of the morphological appearance of the 7 day old bovine blastocyst reflected the degree of cellular organization and the number of cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Linares
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: King