Improvement in Development and Quality of 8 Cell Mouse Embryos in Presence of Granulocyte Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor

Purpose: Granulose Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF) is a lympho- heamatopoietic actor, secreted in the reproductive system. Murine pre- implantation embryos express GM-CSF receptors. In his study, the capacity of eight cell mouse embryos was studied in the presence and absence of GM-CSF. Materials and Methods: Female NMRI mice were super ovulated using Pregnant Mare Serum gonadotropin (pMSG) and human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) injections at 48h intervals. To collect the ight cell embryos, the animals were sacrificed by cervical dislocation 72 h post hCG injection. The embryos ere cultured in the following two groups: one group as the control was cultured in T6 medium supplemented with 5 mg/ml Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA), and the other group was cultured in T6 medium supplemented with 5 mg/ml BSA and 2 ng/ml GM-CSF. Developmental rates of embryos were assessed on a daily basis. The blastocysts were stained and their total cell number was counted. The diameters of the blastocysts were measured using a calibrated eye piece. Results: The developmental rates of eight cell embryos to blastocysts stage in the control and GM-CSF groups were 77.86% and 88.62%, and the diameters of blastocysts in these groups were 134.11 and 138.97 micrometer, respectively. In addition, the total cell number of blastocysts in these groups was 81.00 and 90.60. Our results showed that early cleavage rates of embryos in the presence of GM-CSF improved, and that the total cell number and blastocysts diameter, in particular, showed significant differences between the groups (p<0.005) .Conclusion: It seems that the GM-CSF is a suitable embryotrophic factor.