During pregnancy an adequate amino acid supply is essential for embryo development and fetal growth. We have studied amino acid composition and branched chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolism at day 6 p.c. in diabetic rabbits and blastocysts. In the plasma of diabetic rabbits the concentrations of 12 amino acids were altered in comparison to the controls. Notably, the concentrations of the BCAA leu...

Many different approaches have been developed to improve the efficiency of animal cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), one of which is to modify histone acetylation levels using histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) such as trichostatin A (TSA). In the present study, we examined the effect of TSA on in vitro development of porcine embryos derived from SCNT. We found that TSA treatm...

In the present study, we investigated the role of actin filaments in the blastocoel (BC) of bovine blastocysts produced in vitro by using cytochalasin-D (CD), an inhibitor of actin polymerization. Blastocysts classified as good or poor based on their morphological normality were exposed to 2 μM CD for 1.5–2 hr. After incubation, the presence or absence of BC was observed, and the re-expansion r...

Tetraploid complementation is often used to produce mice from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) by injection of diploid (2n) ESCs into tetraploid (4n) blastocysts (ESC-derived mice). This method has also been adapted to mouse cloning and the derivation of mice from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. However, the underlying mechanism(s) of the tetraploid complementation remains largely unclear. Whe...

Summary This study was designed to evaluate the quality and viability of bovine embryos produced by in vitro fertilization (IVF), after intracytoplasmic injection of pCX-EGFP-liposome complexes or pBCKIP2.8-liposome complexes (plasmids that codify the human insulin gene). Cleavage, blastocysts and expanded blastocysts rates of these both groups were not different from that of controls (IVF or I...

OBJECTIVE To compare the effect of using open and closed carriers on count of inner cell mass in vitrified mouse blastocyst after warming. METHODS The experimental study was conducted at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran, from April to September 2010. Forty female NMRI (Naval Medical Research Institute, USA) mice were injected with pregnant mare's serum gonadotropi...

Experiments were conducted to detect interferon-tau in bovine in vitro-derived blastocysts by transmission electron (TEM) and confocal microscopy. TEM showed the presence of IFN-tau in the cytoplasm and the nuclei of expanded blastocysts. Confocal microscopy similarly confirmed the presence of IFN-tau in the trophectoderm of blastocysts. The distribution of IFN-tau appeared variable with some c...

In human in-vitro fertilization (IVF), embryos are routinely transferred to the uterus on either day 2 or day 3 of development, resulting in a 10-15% implantation rate. However, in other mammalian species, the transfer of cleavage stage embryos, which normally reside in the oviduct, to the uterus results in a significantly lower implantation rate compared with blastocysts. It is therefore propo...

Porcine embryonic stem cells (pESCs) have great potential for application in translational biomedical research, including xenotransplantation and disease models. Obtaining high-quality blastocysts is the most important factor in the isolation and colonization of primary ESCs and the establishment of ESC lines. In pigs, in vitro-derived blastocysts have a limited cell number compared to in vivo-...

objective: the appropriate interaction between a blastocyst and the endometrium is essential for successful implantation. numerous factors, including hormone receptors (progesterone receptor), cytokines [leukemia inhibitory factors (lif)], and adherence molecules such as e-cadherin are involved in the cross-talk that occurs between the embryo and endometrium. studies show that a lack of these g...