Pluripotent epiblast (EPI) cells, present in the inner cell mass (ICM) of the mouse blastocyst, are progenitors of both embryonic stem (ES) cells and the fetus. Discovering how pluripotency genes regulate cell fate decisions in the blastocyst provides a valuable way to understand how pluripotency is normally established. EPI cells are specified by two consecutive cell fate decisions. The first ...

OBJECTIVE To assess cycle outcome among day 5 and day 6 cryopreserved frozen-thawed blastocyst embryo transfers (FBET). DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Military-based assisted reproduction technology (ART) center. PATIENT(S) One hundred seventy-two nondonor, programmed cryopreserved embryo cycles. INTERVENTION(S) Fully expanded blastocysts on day 5 were cryopreserved on day 5...

STUDY QUESTION Does conventional blastocyst morphological evaluation correlate with euploidy (as assessed by comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) of trophectoderm (TE) biopsies) and implantation potential? SUMMARY ANSWER A moderate relation between blastocyst morphology and CCS data was observed but the ability to implant seems to be mainly determined by the chromosomal complement of prei...

Frozen-thawed spermatozoa collected from a beef bull (Japanese Black) were used for in vitro fertilization (IVF) of matured oocytes obtained from dairy (Holstein) and beef (Japanese Black) females. Embryos were examined for fertilization, cleavage rate, interval between insemination and blastocyst production (experiment I), total cell number per embryo and sex ratio during blastocyst formation ...

Preimplantation or pre-attachment development encompasses the "free"-living period of mammalian embryogenesis, which directs development of the zygote through to the blastocyst stage. Blastocyst formation is essential for implantation, establishment of pregnancy and is a principal determinant of embryo quality prior to embryo transfer. Cavitation (blastocyst formation) is driven by the expressi...

A retrospective study of 5,982 embryos in 619 blastocyst-stage embryo transfer cycles revealed that detection of multinucleated blastomeres either on day 2 or 3 signifies a poor prognosis for blastocyst formation and that no good-quality blastocyst can be expected from an embryo with more than one multinucleated blastomere. Patients should be counseled regarding a poor prognosis when multiple e...

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...

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...