According to the "developmental origin of health and disease" hypothesis, the metabolic set points of glucose and lipid metabolism are determined prenatally. In the case of a diabetic pregnancy, the embryo is exposed to higher glucose and lipid concentrations as early as during preimplantation development. We used the rabbit to study the effect of maternal diabetes type 1 on lipid accumulation ...

Considerable advances in media development for the culture of preimplantation mammalian embryos have been made since mouse embryos were first cultured and successfully transferred to foster mothers. The purpose of this review is to detail the history of the development of chemically defined media for the culture of preimplantation embryos. Two approaches have been used to determine the composit...

In 2005, the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) Consortium published a set of Guidelines for Best Practice to give information, support and guidance to potential, existing and fledgling PGD programmes (Thornhill AR, De Die-Smulders CE, Geraedts JP, Harper JC, Harton GL, Lavery SA, Moutou C, Robinson MD, Schmutzler AG, Scriven P...

Analysis of micronuclei (MN) in preimplantation embryos is a good method for the evaluation of cytogenetic damage induced by occupational and environmental mutagen during early pregnancy. To examine whether conventional Giemsa staining produced the same accuracy of micronuclei as the DNA-specific 4', 6'-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining in preimplantation embryo induced by maternal expos...

Synchronized preimplantation embryo development and passage through the oviduct into the uterus are prerequisites for implantation, dysregulation of which often leads to pregnancy failure in women. Cannabinoid/endocannabinoid signaling via cannabinoid receptor CB1 is known to influence early pregnancy. Here we provide evidence that a critical balance between anandamide synthesis by N-acylphosph...

Mammalian sperm are carriers of not only the paternal genome, but also the paternal epigenome in the forms of DNA methylation, retained histones and noncoding RNAs. Although paternal DNA methylation and histone retention sites have been correlated with protein-coding genes that are critical for preimplantation embryonic development, physiological evidence of an essential role of these epigeneti...

Poor maternal nutrition during pregnancy can alter postnatal phenotype and increase susceptibility to adult cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. However, underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we show that maternal low protein diet (LPD), fed exclusively during mouse preimplantation development, leads to offspring with increased weight from birth, sustained hypertension, and abnorma...

DNA methylation reprogramming plays important roles in mammalian embryogenesis. Mammalian somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos with reprogramming defects fail to develop. Thus, we compared DNA methylation reprogramming in preimplantation embryos from bovine SCNT and in vitro fertilization (IVF) and analyzed the influence of vitamin C (VC) on the reprogramming of DNA methylation. The res...

Histone H2B monoubiquitination (H2Bub1) plays an important role in developmental regulation in various vertebrate species. However, the role of H2Bub1 in mammalian preimplantation development remains unclear. In the present study, we examined the role of H2Bub1 in the regulation of mouse preimplantation development. Based on immunocytochemical analysis using an anti-H2Bub1 antibody, no H2Bub1 s...

Previous studies have established the presence of an extrahypothalamic GnRH in a variety of tissues. GnRH receptor is known to be present in the placenta, which produces and secretes the decapeptide from the very early stages of placentation. We hypothesized that GnRH may play a role in the preimplantation development of embryos. To examine this hypothesis, we assessed GnRH and GnRH receptor me...