Experimental studies on animal models play essential roles in the development of preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for diseases in a wide spectrum of fields including neurological sciences. The goal of this study was to demonstrate the shell-less culture system of the chick embryo as a potential experimental model in the field of developmental neurobiology. We were able to obser...

Many efforts have been made to develop effective culture conditions for the production of bovine blastocysts. Growth hormone (GH) and glucose are known to affect in vitro embryo development. To improve in vitro culture conditions, the culture medium containing fetal calf serum (FCS) or bovine serum albumin (BSA) was supplemented with GH at various periods of development, and the effects of GH o...

Developmental biology teachers use the example of the frog embryo to introduce young scientists to the wonders of vertebrate development, and to pose the crucial question, 'How does a ball of cells become an exquisitely patterned embryo?'. Classical embryologists also recognized the power of the amphibian model and used extirpation and explant studies to explore early embryo polarity and to def...

During embryonic development of Artemia sinica, environmental stresses induce the embryo diapause phenomenon, required to resist apoptosis and regulate cell cycle activity. The small ubiquitin-related modifier-1 (SUMO), a reversible post-translational protein modifier, plays an important role in embryo development. SUMO regulates multiple cellular processes, including development and other biol...

Understanding human pre-implantation development has important implications for assisted reproductive technology (ART) and for human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based therapies. Owing to limited resources, the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing this early stage of human development are poorly understood. Nonetheless, recent advances in non-invasive imaging techniques and molecular and g...

The effect of modified vitrification was assessed on cellular development capability in mouse embryos cultured in vitro. In this study, 466 embryos (from zygote to morula stages) were vitrified then thawed embryos have been incubated for in vitro farther development up to blastocyst stage. Also, vitrification and thawing procedures were the same for all experimental groups. Mouse different embr...

Excess embryos from patients undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection and embryo transfer for male infertility were cultured to determine the rate and timing of their progression to the blastocyst stage. In 194 embryo transfer cycles, four embryos with the morphologically best grading were transferred and at least two embryos were cultured. The cycles were classified as: group 1: no excess e...

Iron is an essential micronutrient for plants. Little is know about how iron is loaded in embryo during seed development. In this article we used Perls/DAB staining in order to reveal iron localization at the cellular and subcellular levels in different Brassicaceae seed species. In dry seeds of Brassica napus, Nasturtium officinale, Lepidium sativum, Camelina sativa, and Brassica oleracea iron...