Background: Acute high dose exposure to teratogenic chemicals alters the proper development of an embryo leading to infertility, impaired fecundity, and few viable offspring. However, chronic exposure to sub-toxic doses of teratogens during early development may also have long-term impacts on egg quality and embryo viability. Methods: To test the hypothesis that low dose exposure during early d...

To investigate the susceptibility of early bovine embryos to noncytopathogenic bovine viral diarrhea virus (NCP BVDV), 2- and 4-cell embryos produced in vitro from which zona pellucida had been removed by pronase treatment, and hatched blastocysts were exposed to 10(6) TCID50/m/ of NCP BVDV No. 12 strain. The virus was detected in all embryo samples immediately prior to cultivation but not in t...

For the determination of acute toxicity chemicals in zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) embryos, OECD test guideline 236, relative to Fish Embryo Toxicity Test (FET), stipulates a dose-response analysis four lethal core endpoints and quantitative characterization abnormalities including their time-dependency. Routinely, data are analyzed at different observation times separately. However, observations g...

Background: Vitrification has been usually used as an assisted reproductive technology in animals and humans. This method needs high concentrations of cryoprotectants that can be toxic with high cooling degrees. Then, vitrification could be change histone modifications such as methylation and acetylation can performance as regulatory controls of gene transcription. So, the purpose of the presen...

It has been demonstrated previously that removal of acellular debris from the preimplantation mouse embryo is beneficial for subsequent development to the hatched blastocyst stage. We have studied the impact of cellular fragmentation induced in the mouse embryo during the late pronuclei and 8-cell stages on the hatching frequency and total cell number at the blastocyst stage. At the late pronuc...

Background This study was undertaken to investigate the efficiency of two different embryo somatic cell co-culture conditions tissue culture medium 199 (TCM199)–vero cells and Menezo B2 (B2)-vero cells for the in vitro developmental quantity and quality of bovine embryos. MaterialsAndMethods Bovine oocytes were allowed to mature and subsequently undergo fertilization in vitro. Their presumptive...

Sex ratios have important evolutionary consequences and are often biased by environmental factors. The effect of developmental temperature on offspring sex ratios has been widely documented across a diverse range of taxa but has rarely been investigated in birds and mammals. However, recent field observations and artificial incubation experiments have demonstrated that the hatching sex ratio of...

As it approaches the maternal surface, the attaching embryo encounters the epithelial glycocalyx, which contains the mucin, MUC1. A high density of MUC1 at the cell surface can inhibit cell adhesion. This raises the possibility of the existence of a uterine barrier to implantation that might allow maternal rejection of poorer quality embryos. To investigate the mechanism of implantation, human ...

Pig embryos suffer severe sensitivity to hypothermic conditions, which limits their ability to withstand conventional cryopreservation. Research has focused on high lipid content of pig embryos and its role in hypothermic sensitivity, while little research has been conducted on structural damage. Documenting cytoskeletal disruption provides information on embryonic sensitivity and cellular resp...

The BALB/c murine endogenous xenotropic leukemia virus pseudotype of m1 Moloney sarcoma virus [m1MSV(B-MuX)] was used to productively transform diploid Japanese quail embryo cells. The majority of newly hatched quail inoculated with m1MSV(B-MuX)-transformed quail embryo fibroblast cells rapidly developed tumors which were predominantly locally invasive fibrosarcomas, but metastases were observe...