Mouse embryos recovered on the 4th day of pregnancy produced histamine, as evidenced by the 14CO2 produced from carboxy labelled L-histidine, at the rate of 1.5 +/- 0.3 (s.e.m.) pmol/embryo per hour. Most (83.2 +/- 4.6%) of the embryos flushed from the oviducts on Day 3 of pregnancy (4--8-cell stage) developed into blastocysts within 48 h after being placed in culture. Inclusion of L-histidine ...

Cell types more advanced in development than embryonic stem cells, such as EpiSCs, fail to contribute to chimeras when injected into pre-implantation-stage blastocysts, apparently because the injected cells undergo apoptosis. Here we show that transient promotion of cell survival through expression of the anti-apoptotic gene BCL2 enables EpiSCs and Sox17+ endoderm progenitors to integrate into ...

Following intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), approximately 60-70% of oocytes are fertilized and of these embryos, approximately 45% withstand in-vitro culture conditions to produce healthy blastocysts. The efficiency of implantation of 2-4-cell embryos selected at the pronuclear stage and that of blastocysts are comparable. However, prolonged selection of embryos in vitro (4-5 days), has ...

The standard washing and trypsin treatment procedures to remove viruses adhering to the zona pellucida (ZP) were evaluated. Mouse embryos at the early blastocyst stage were exposed to Sendai virus, and then washed or treated with trypsin. Even after washing or trypsin treatment, Sendai virus was detected in the twelfth and final wash. The virus was still shown to adhere to the ZP by immunofluor...

Background: The aim of our study was to compare the resulting from transfer of embryos that cryopereserved in cleavage stage after thawing and transfer of embryos after thawing and culture in sequentional media until blastocyst formation. Materials and Methods: In this prospective clinical study, we have evaluated 128 cycles in women undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sp...

BACKGROUND The availability of an efficient cryopreservation program is especially important in the case of embryos that have undergone blastomere biopsy for PGD. Unfortunately, the freezing/thawing of biopsied embryos has given disappointing results when performed at the cleavage stage. In this study, embryos diagnosed as normal after PGD were grown to the blastocyst stage, frozen and thawed f...

The permeability of the plasma membrane to water and cryoprotectants is one of the important factors for determining the suitable condition for the vitrification of mammalian oocytes and embryos. Water and cryoprotectants move slowly through oocytes and early embryos, principally by simple diffusion, in the mouse, bovine, pig, and human. In contrast, water, glycerol, and ethylene glycerol move ...

1. Inner cell mass (ICM) and trophoblast tissue were isolated from 3^-day post-coitum mouse blastocysts that were homozygous for different electrophoretic variants of the enzyme glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI). Blastocysts were reconstituted from these tissues, transferred to pseudo-pregnant recipients and allowed to develop to the early somite stage. 2. The embryo plus membranes and trophobl...

INTRODUCTION Embryo biopsy has potential applications in molecular research processes in domestic animals, besides its application in sex determination in embryo transfer programs. The objective of the present study was to assess the in vitro development of bovine embryos biopsied on different days of precompacted morula stage. MATERIALS AND METHODS Slaughterhouse-derived oocytes were matured...

Bovine follicular oocytes matured in vitro were fertilized in vitro using epididymal spermatozoa from five different bulls and then cultured to the blastocyst stage in vitro. The fertilization rate, based on one pair of pronuclei and presence of one sperm tail, ranged from 55.2 to 64.3%. Embryo development (cleavage to blastocyst stage) ranged from 21.4 to 31.0% of the cultured ova reaching 8 c...