The objective of this study was to examine the effect of different sera and serum-like substances on the preimplantation development of porcine parthenogenetic embryos. Chemically activated (calcium ionophore A23187+cytochalasin B) pig oocytes were pre-cultured for five days. On day 5, the parthenogenetic embryos were treated with porcine follicular fluid (PFF), fetal bovine serum (FBS), horse ...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of blastocyst culture in patients with azoospermia. METHODS In 98 cycles embryos were cultured for 2 days and in 128 cycles for 5 days to reach the blastocyst stage; a maximum of two of the most developed embryos were transferred in each group. RESULTS There was a negative correlation between a high (>/=20 IU/l) male serum FSH and em...

During mouse pre-implantation development, extra-embryonic primitive endoderm (PrE) and pluripotent epiblast precursors are specified in the inner cell mass (ICM) of the early blastocyst in a 'salt and pepper' manner, and are subsequently sorted into two distinct layers. Positional cues provided by the blastocyst cavity are thought to be instrumental for cell sorting; however, the sequence of e...

In this study, we report a total of 292 mouse embryos cultured on Vero cell monolayers and 77 embryos cultured in medium alone at different preimplantation stages examined individually for embryonic mRNA of beta-actin, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (icIL-1ra) and interleukin-1 receptor type I (IL-1RtI) using reverse transcription and two-step polymerase chain r...

The hatching of a blastocyst where the blastocyst portions on the inside and the outside of the zona pellucida feature a figure-of-eight shape is termed "8"-shaped hatching; this type of hatching has been reported to affect the proper presentation of the inner cell mass (ICM) in both human and mouse embryos. Here, our aim was to investigate the factors that affect ICM presentation during "8"-sh...

Biological functions of hyaluronan (HA) depend on its molecular size. Small size HAs are known to regulate cell proliferation; however, the expression of HA synthases (HASs) and hyaluronidase-2 (HYAL2) and their role during early embryo development have not been previously identified. In this paper, we have shown by immunostaining that HA is produced by bovine in vitro-produced embryos at all s...

The formation of the three lineages of the mouse blastocyst provides a powerful model system to study interactions among cell behavior, cell signaling, and lineage development. Hippo signaling differences between the inner and outer cells of the early cleavage stages, combined with establishment of a stably polarized outer epithelium, lead to the establishment of the inner cell mass and the tro...

The extremely low efficiency of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) derivation using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) limits its potential application. Blastocyst formation from human SCNT embryos occurs at a low rate and with only some oocyte donors. We previously showed in mice that reduction of histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) through ectopic expression of the H3K9me3 demethylas...