title: Successful non-surgical deep uterine transfer of porcine morulae after 24 hour culture in a chemically defined medium.
abstract: Excellent fertility and prolificacy have been reported after non-surgical deep uterine transfers of fresh in vivo-derived porcine embryos. Unfortunately, when this technology is used with vitrified embryos, the reproductive performance of recipients is low. For this reason and because the embryos must be stored until they are transferred to the recipient farms, we evaluated the potential application of non-surgical deep uterine transfers with in vivo-derived morulae cultured for 24 h in liquid stage. In Experiment 1, two temperatures (25 °C and 37 °C) and two media (one fully defined and one semi-defined) were assessed. Morulae cultured in culture medium supplemented with bovine serum albumin and fetal calf serum at 38.5 °C in 5% CO2 in air were used as controls. Irrespective of medium, the embryo viability after 24 h of culture was negatively affected (P<0.05) at 25 °C but not at 37 °C compared with the controls. Embryo development was delayed in all experimental groups compared with the control group (P<0.001). Most of the embryos (95.7%) cultured at 37 °C achieved the full or expanded blastocyst stage, and unlike the controls, none of them hatched at the end of culture. In Experiment 2, 785 morulae were cultured in the defined medium at 37 °C for 24 h, and the resulting blastocysts were transferred to the recipients (n = 24). Uncultured embryos collected at the blastocyst stage (n = 750) were directly transferred to the recipients and used as controls (n = 25). No differences in farrowing rates (91.7% and 92.0%) or litter sizes (9.0 ± 0.6 and 9.4 ± 0.8) were observed between the groups. This study demonstrated, for the first time, that high reproductive performance can be achieved after non-surgical deep uterine transfers with short-term cultured morulae in a defined medium, which opens new possibilities for the sanitary, safe national and international trade of porcine embryos and the commercial use of embryo transfer in pigs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Emilio A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel Angel
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Angel
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cuello
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Jonatan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Osorio
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Jesus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gomis
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Inmaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Parrilla
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Development, Selección Batallé S.A., Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vila
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Development, Selección Batallé S.A., Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: Ignaci
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Colina
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Development, Selección Batallé S.A., Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Development, Selección Batallé S.A., Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reixach
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Jose Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Vazquez
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan Maria
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Vazquez
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roca
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria Antonia
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Gil
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding / Q000379:methods*; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry*; D046149:Embryo Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D004624:Embryo Transfer / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D009028:Morula / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D013552:Swine / Q000502:physiology*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media