Embryonic mortality is a significant problem plaguing the commercial duck industry worldwide. Yet, an objective means to stage development of the duck embryo is lacking. Such a staging procedure, which is described in this study, is essential for the critical and reproducible assessment of embryo development. The morphological features associated with duck embryo development are very similar to...

Porcine embryo selection prior to transfer is mainly influenced by morphological criteria. However, the relationship between embryonic morphology, developmental potential and cell death by apoptosis in porcine embryos is still unclear. The aim of this study was to establish embryo quality parameters for in vivo fertilised porcine embryos based on timing of development in vitro, embryo morpholog...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Water channels, also named aquaporins (AQPs), play crucial roles in cellular water homeostasis. METHODS RT-PCR indicated the mRNA expression of AQPs 1-5, 7, 9, and 11-12, but not AQPs 0, 6, 8, and 10 in the 2∼8-cell stage human embryos. AQP3 and AQP7 were further analyzed for their mRNA expression and protein expression in the oocyte, zygote, 2-cell embryo, 4-cell embryo, 8-ce...

BACKGROUND: All-trans retinol is a biological antioxidantscavenging the ROS in the cell culture. OBJECTIVES: This studywas conducted to investigate the effect of all-trans retinol infertilization and culture medium on mouse embryo's developmentalcompetence. METHODS: This study was designed into twoexperiments. In the first experiment, in vitro mature oocytes wereco-cultured with sperm in fertil...

The amount of histone H4 mRNA per embryo was followed during early development of Xenopus laevis by Northern blot analyses using a cloned histone H4 cDNA as the probe. The H4 mRNA content was nearly constant until the blastula stage, increased greatly at the gastrula stage and then decreased at the neurula stage. Experiments with actinomycin D suggested that most H4 mRNA molecules detected at t...

BACKGROUND Measures to prevent assisted reproductive technologies (ART) mix-ups, such as labeling of all labware and double-witnessing protocols, are currently in place in fertility clinics worldwide. Technological solutions for electronic witnessing are also being developed. However, none of these solutions eliminate the risk of identification errors, because gametes and embryos must be transf...

clusters of coloured balls are three-dimensional models of the developing embryo of the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans. The embryos develop according to a standard pattern, the cell lineage of which was originally worked out by directly observing cells in thousands of embryos under the microscope. But with the advent of 'four-dimensional microscopy', the entire development of one embryo ...

We identified a new gene that is interrupted by T-DNA in an Arabidopsis embryo mutant called raspberry3. raspberry3 has "raspberry-like" cellular protuberances with an enlarged suspensor characteristic of other raspberry embryo mutants, and is arrested morphologically at the globular stage of embryo development. The predicted RASPBERRY3 protein has domains found in proteins present in prokaryot...

We report the hemodynamic parameters of stage 18, 21, 24, and 27 chick embryos (from 3 to 5 days of incubation). Dorsal aortic blood velocity and mean vitelline artery blood pressure are measured with a 20 MHz pulsed-Doppler meter and servo-null pressure system respectively. We also measure heart rate, dorsal aortic diameter and embryo weight of each developmental stage. From these data, we cal...