the effect of 4?c temperature on development and implantation rate of mouse embryo

introduction: this investigation was undertaken to examine the effect of 4centigrade degree temperature on development and implantation rate of mouse embryos. materials and methods: femal mice (4-6 week old) were induced to superovulate and were mated. two cell embryos were flushed from excited oviducts, 46 – 48 h after the infection of hcg, and were cultured to eight – cell stage in m16 medium, thereafter the embryos were stored at 4centigrade degree for 0 to 48 h in m2 medium. after cold storage, embryos were allowed to develop to expanded blastocysts. to examine the implantation rate, blastocysts which were morphologically normal were transferred into the uterine horn of pseudopregnant recipients on day 4. results: statistical analysis indicated that, there was no significant difference (p=0.19 & p=0.17) between experimental and control groups during storage at 4centigrade degreefor 0 to 24 h, regarding the development to expanding blastocysts in culture. but the survival rate tended to decrease with increased storage time in addition, considering the implantation rate, no significant difference was observed between the experimental groups stored for 18 – 24 h and control groups (p=0.79 & p=0.74). conclusion: the results of this study indicate that nonfreezing technique is a useful method for short – term storage of mouse embryos.