title: Addition of penicillamine, hypotaurine and epinephrine (PHE) or bovine oviductal epithelial cells (BOEC) alone or in combination to bovine in vitro fertilization medium increases the subsequent embryo cleavage rate.
abstract: The cleavage rate of in vitro-matured bovine oocytes was compared after fertilization in 1) TALP medium alone (control); 2) in TALP+BOEC; 3) in TALP+PHE; or 4) in TALP+BOEC and PHE. The overall cleavage rate at 45 h post insemination was greater for embryos in Treatments 2 (52%), 3 (55%) and 4 (66%) than for Treatment 1 (32%). The oocyte cleavage rates for Treatments 2 and 3 were similar, but were lower than that of Treatment 4. Addition of PHE or BOEC, alone or in combination, to the fertilization medium resulted in more embryos at the 3- or 4-cell stage than the 2-cell stage by 45 h post insemination. After 5 d of co-culture with BOEC in M-199 medium, 21, 28, 25 and 35% of the cleaved embryos in Treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively, developed to the morula or blastocyst stage. The rate of development to morulae and blastocysts was similar among Treatments 1, 2 and 3, and between Treatments 2 and 4. Across treatments, a correlation of 0.98 was noted between the portion of embryos that had reached the 3- or 4-cell stage by 45 h post insemination and the percentage of embryos in each treatment that continued to develop to the morula or blastocyst stage in vitro.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Gliedt
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rakes
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Rorie