Background: At the outset of the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) process, the chromatin structure of the somatic cell which governs its state of differentiation undergoes dramatic changes, called reprogramming, and is compelled back to the embryonic stage. However, the overall epigenetic makeup of the resultant cloned embryos has been acknowledged far different from the fertilized embryos....

background: in the field of mammalian embryo culture, the putative influence of autocrine/ paracrine factor(s), produce by the embryos itself, is under investigation. a smaller medium drop can prevent dilution of this factor(s). objective: the objective of this study was to examine the effect of culture medium volume on in vitro development of mouse 2-cell embryos. materials and methods: the em...

background: embryonic stem (es) cells are pluripotent cells conventionally isolated from early embryos. studies have shown that es cells serve as a practical model for biomedical studies. objective: the aim of the present study was to optimize culture conditions for establishment of es-like colonies from nmri mouse blastocysts as well as 2-cell stage embryos. materials and methods: both expande...

background: this study was designed to develop a new co-culture system, assess the effect of luteinizing hormone (lh) using sequential media to promote development and increase the quality of 2-cell murine embryos through the 8-16 cell stage to morula and blastocyst stages. materials and methods: monolayers for co-culture were prepared from ovine oviduct epithelial cells (ooec) in dmem/f12 medi...

Background: It is demonstrated that c-Kit( receptor of stem cell factor) mRNA is expressed in late 2-cell stage to the expanded and hatched blastocyst and the stem cell factor (SCF) transcript is detected in the oviduct and uterus. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different doses of SCF on mouse 2-cell embryo development in vitro. Materials and Methods: 4-6 weeks old femal...

introduction: it is now generally accepted that vero cells provide beneficial effects on improving embryo quality in many animal species. the aim of this research was to determine the effect of vero cell co-culture on the development of vitrified 8-cell mouse embryos. material and methods: eight- cell mouse embryos were provided from superovulated female nmri mice and divided into treatment cas...

Background: The mitochondria are an important source of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production in pre-implantation embryo. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of vitrification and in vitro culture of mouse embryos on their mitochondrial distribution and ATP content. Methods: The embryos at 2-PN, 4-cell and blastocyst stages were collected from the oviduct of st...

background: nowadays, oocytes and embryos vitrification has become a routine technique. based on clinical judgment, re-vitrification maybe required. but little is known about re-vitrification impact on genes expression. objective: the impact of re-vitrification on apoptotic and implanting genes, bax, bcl-2 and erbb4, at compaction stage embryos were evaluated in this study. materials and method...

objective: the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of laser assisted hatching on the development and quality of vitrified-warmed 4-cell stage mouse embryos. materials and methods: the vitrified-warmed 4-cell mouse embryos were divided into two groups: control group (without laser assisted hatching) and experiment group (with laser assisted hatching). all embryos in both groups were ...

Background: One of the main problems in ART is low pregnancy rates. The factors involved in successful pregnancy include; 1. mother related factors such as the status of endometrial receptivity and hormonal status of the mother. 2. embryo related factors such as; number of transferred embryo, embryo scores including: number and size of the blastomeres, and their fragmentation. The aim of the pr...