Teratocarcinoma cells (OTT 6050) from 129 SvSl C P mice were transferred into blastocysts from random bred Swiss albino mice. The blastocysts were placed in the uteri of foster mothers and the adults resulting from these blastocysts were studied for evidence of an effect of the transferred malignant cells. Sixty adults resulted from the experiments, and one of the adult mice that had received t...

Experiments were designed to study development of bovine embryos in TCM-199 medium conditioned by preculture with buffalo rat liver (BRL) cells. Conditioned media were harvested after BRL cells were cultured until confluency (CON), or for an additional 2 d with the same cells but new medium (CON-N) or the same medium (CON-S). Glucose in TCM-199 was depleted by BRL cells to different concentrati...

To determine the presence of sexual dimorphic transcription and how in vitro culture environments influence X-linked gene transcription patterns in preimplantation embryos, we analyzed mRNA expression levels in in vivo-derived, in vitro-fertilized (IVF), and cloned porcine blastocysts. Our results clearly show that sex-biased expression occurred between female and male in vivo blastocysts in X-...

Delayed blastocysts had an oxygen consumption of 0-24 nl/h, while only 4 h after an oestrogen injection the respiration had increased nearly two fold, remaining at this level both 8 and 18 h after activation for implantation. The mitochondria of delayed blastocysts exhibited no positive cytochrome oxidase reaction, neither in the trophoblast nor in the embryoblasts. A few mitochondria at 8 h an...

Successful embryo implantation requires synchronous development and communication between the blastocyst and the endometrium, however the mechanisms of communication in humans are virtually unknown. Recent studies have revealed that microRNAs (miRs) are present in bodily fluids and secreted by cells in culture. We have identified that human blastocysts differentially secrete miRs in a pattern a...

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of different cryoprotectants (CPs) on DNA fragmentation of in vitro produced blastocysts to determine an appropriate cryoprotectant for embryo cryopreservation. Therefore, the precise aims of the study were to assess the toxic effects of different cryoprotectants in terms of survival rate and to evaluate the effects of di...

To study the effect of partial removal of intracytoplasmatic lipids from bovine zygotes on their in vitro and in vivo survival, presumptive zygotes were delipidated by micromanipulation and cocultured with Vero cells in B2+10% FCS. Blastocyst rates of delipidated (n=960), sham (centrifuged but not delipidated, n=830) and control embryos (n=950) were 42.1, 42.3 and 39.9% respectively (P > 0.05)....

A variety of cellular interactions is involved in the process of implantation of the mammalian embryo into the uterine tissue. Recent discoveries have demonstrated that intercellular recognition and adhesive events are governed by a class of cell surface molecules known as cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). In the present report, we have investigated the occurrence of the well-characterized cell a...

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) secretion from epithelial cells lining the female reproductive tract is induced during early pregnancy by ovarian steroid hormones and constituents of seminal plasma. In this study we have investigated the influence of GM-CSF on development of preimplantation mouse embryos. Blastocyst-stage embryos were found to specifically bind (125)I-...