title: Bovine oocyte maturation, fertilization and further development in vitro and after transfer into recipients.
abstract: Bovine oocytes were aspirated from ovaries within 1.6 to 2 hours after slaughter. They were then matured in TCM-199 medium drops under oil in CO(2)/air incubator at 39 degrees C. Spermatozoa were capacitated in SP-TALP medium with heparin. The percentage of embryos that developed in vitro to the 4- and 6- cell stages 48 hours post insemination and then reached the morula or blastocyst stage was 64.3% and 59.2%, respectively, while only 3.6% of the embryos that reached the 2-cell stage became morula or blastocysts. An average of 6.3+/-3.2 total in vitro fertilized embryos per cow were obtained (range 2 to 11). Maturation of bovine oocytes in vitro for 18 or 24 hours did not influence the percentage of cleaved embryos (71.0 and 75.9%, respectively) or that developed to the blastocyst stage (25.6 and 24.2%, respectively). The use of reindeer blood serum for in vitro culture of immature bovine oocytes and of dividing of embryos gave the following results: 57.4% of the oocytes cleaved after fertilization and 16.2% developed further to the blastocyst stage. In contrast in the control group, where cow serum was used, the values were 73.4% and 24.8%, respectively. Rabbit oviduct epithelium cell monolayers were able to support the development of 16.3% of the cleaved bovine embryos to the blastocyst stage as compared with 24.0% of the embryos on cow oviduct epithelium cell monolayers. After nonsurgical transplantation, 12 calves were produced from 91 in vitro fertilized embryos.
authors.affiliation: Research and Production Center for Animal Husbandry 142712 Moscow Region, Leninskie District p/o Gorki Leninskie, Russia.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Prokofiev
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Suraeva
authors.forename: I S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Lagutina
authors.forename: N N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Udavlennikova
authors.forename: A Z
authors.initials: AZ
authors.lastname: Kesyan
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Dolgohatskiy