title: Replacing serum in culture medium with albumin and insulin, transferrin and selenium is the key to successful bovine embryo development in individual culture.
abstract: Individual culture of bovine embryos is usually associated with low blastocyst development. However, during preliminary experiments in our laboratory we observed high blastocyst development after individual embryo culture in a serum-free culture system. We therefore hypothesised that serum has a negative effect on embryos cultured individually whereas embryos in groups can counteract this. First, we determined whether the timing of removal of serum (during maturation or culture) had an influence on individual embryo development. The results clearly showed that removal of serum during embryo culture was the main contributing factor since high blastocyst development was observed after individual culture in synthetic oviductal fluid supplemented with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and insulin, transferrin and selenium (ITS), independent of the maturation medium. Second, we investigated whether an individual factor of the ITS supplement was essential for individual embryo development. We demonstrated that repeatable high blastocyst percentages were due to the synergistic effect of ITS. Finally, we investigated if a group-culture effect can still be observed under serum-free conditions. Group culture generated blastocysts with higher total cell numbers and less apoptosis. These data show that individual culture in serum-free conditions leads to high blastocyst development, but group culture still improves blastocyst quality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics, and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wydooghe
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics, and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heras
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics, and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dewulf
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics, and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Piepers
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Medicine, University Hospital, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Van den Abbeel
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Medicine, University Hospital, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Sutter
authors.affiliation: Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Animal Sciences Unit, Scheldeweg 68, 9090 Melle Belgium.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vandaele
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics, and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Soom
mesh_terms: D000418:Albumins; D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000166:cytology*; D002417:Cattle; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry*; D046149:Embryo Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007328:Insulin; D012643:Selenium; D014168:Transferrin
chemical_list: D000418:Albumins; D003470:Culture Media; D007328:Insulin; D014168:Transferrin; D012643:Selenium