title: Effect of potassium simplex optimization medium and NCSU23 supplemented with beta-mercaptoethanol and amino acids of in vitro fertilized porcine embryos.
abstract: The present study was conducted to examine the comparative efficacy of potassium simplex optimization medium (KSOM) and North Carolina State University (NCSU)-23 medium supplemented with beta-mercaptoethanol (beta-ME) and amino acids (AA) on the developmental competence of porcine in vitro fertilized (IVF) embryos. Four experiments were conducted. KSOM and NCSU-23 medium were used to culture porcine parthenogenetic (Exp. 1) and IVF (Exp. 2) embryos. KSOM and NCSU-23 were equally effective in supporting porcine parthenogenetic and IVF embryo development from the 1-cell stage to blastocysts. The NCSU-23 medium (Exp. 3) and KSOM (Exp. 4) were supplemented with amino acid (AA; 5 microl/ml non-essential amino acids + 10 microl/ml essential amino acids) and/or 10 microM beta-mercaptoethanol (beta-ME). The quality of blastocysts from Exp. 3 and 4 was evaluated by counting the number of total cells and determining the ratio of the inner cell mass (ICM) to trophoectoderm (TE) cells. Supplementing with AA and beta-ME or beta-ME alone in NCSU-23 produced significant (p<0.05) differences in terms of rate of cleavage to the 2- to 4- cell (80.8 to 85.4% vs. 73.6%) and blastocyst (30.4 to 30.5 vs. 23.5%) stages and the number of TE (51.4 to 53.8 vs. 35.8) and total cells (67.2 to 71.2 to 48.8) over the control group. On the other hand, supplementing KSOM with AA and/or beta-ME produced significant (p<0.05) differences in terms of rate of cleavage to the 2- to 4-cell (78.8% vs. 67.7%) and morula (57.8% vs. 46.3%) stages and the number of ICM (18.6 to 19.2 vs. 11.6) and total cells (62.8 to 70.6 vs. 42.8) over control group. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that both KSOM and NCSU-23 medium supplemented with AA and beta-ME and/or only beta-ME alone are superior to normal KSOM and NCSU-23 for porcine IVF embryo culture in terms of embryo developmental competence and quality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Theriogenology and Biotechnology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Abul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hashem
authors.forename: Mohammad Shamim
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hossein
authors.forename: Jeong Yeon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Woo
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ji-Hye
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: So-Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Ok-Jae
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Koo
authors.forename: Seon Mi
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Eu Gine
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sung Keun
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Byeong Chun
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids; D000818:Animals; D003470:Culture Media; D046149:Embryo Culture Techniques; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D008297:Male; D008623:Mercaptoethanol; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D003470:Culture Media; D008623:Mercaptoethanol