This review highlights the importance of energy and protein nutrition of the dam on embryo production and embryo development. Fertility is reduced by greater negative energy balance post-partum as manifest by reductions in fertility and embryo quality associated with lower body condition score (BCS) but particularly with greater postpartum loss of BCS. In addition, excessive energy intake, part...

BACKGROUND Quality control programs are necessary to maintain good clinical practice. Embryo grading has been described as one of the external quality assurance schemes. Although the evaluation of embryos is based on the assessment of morphological characteristics, considerable intra- and inter-observer variability has been described. In this multicentre study, the variability in the embryo eva...

In the normal human menstrual cycle, the final phase of ovarian folliculogenesis leading upto the pre-ovulatory stage is gonadotropin dependent. Luteinising hormone (LH) acts synergistically with follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) to achieve follicular steroidogenesis, luteinisation and ovulation. It therefore follows that the maturational process of the oocyte contained within the follicle and...

Factors affecting pregnancy rate of 5627 Zebu embryos in crossbred females with unknown proportions of Holstein and Zebu breeding were examined. After evaluation for developmental stage, quality, and viability, embryos were immediately transferred to recipients. Pregnancy diagnosis was conducted approximately 53 d after transfer; pregnancy rate was coded as a binomial event and analyzed using l...

A prospective cohort study has been performed to find out if the administration of an oxytocin antagonist (Atosiban) at the occasion of embryo transfer has an effect on the pregnancy rate in patients with repeated failure of implantation. A total of 52 women with repeated failure of implantation after IVF/ICSI were included in this study. The ongoing pregnancy rate (OPR) in the total group of p...

The present study was performed to optimize a superovulation protocol in rats in order to produce a large number of good-quality embryos suitable to develop rat embryonic stem (rES) cells. We first evaluated the ovulation kinetics of three rat strains: Wistar, Fisher and ACI/N. Animals (n=30 per strain) were treated with 50 IU of pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG), and ovulation was induc...

background: the basal medium that supports isolated mouse oviduct (imo) is important for supporting embryo development and quality. methods: the culture of ovine ivm/ivf zygotes was done in imo using sofaacibsa and sofaabsa as basal medium of imo and in sofaabsa alone as control. for preparation of imo mature inbred strain c57bl/6 female mice were synchronized and mated with vasectomized males....

STUDY QUESTION Is the amount of cell-free DNA released by human embryos into culture medium correlated with embryo morphological features? SUMMARY ANSWER The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content of culture medium is significantly associated with the fragmentation rate on Days 2 and 3 of embryo development, whether the oocyte came from women ≤ 35 or >35 years old. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Cellular...