Effect of exposure duration of ovaries and oocytes at ambient temperature on parthenogenetic development of porcine follicular oocytes.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of exposing porcine ovaries to 30-33 C during transportation for 4 h and subsequently room temperature (25 C) for 6 h of storage on in vitro maturation (IVM) and subsequent parthenogenetic development of oocytes collected from the ovaries. After IVM, oocytes having a tight oopalsm membrane and no signs of degeneration were exposed to Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (DPBS) with 7% ethanol (v/v) for 7 min to induce parthenogenetic activation. Moreover, we also determined whether exposure of the collected oocytes to room temperature for 1, 2 and 4 h in DPBS or porcine follicular fluid (pFF) affected parthenogenetic development.

Effects of transferring in vitro-cultured rabbit embryos to recipient oviducts on mucin coat deposition, implantation and development.

A mucin coat is deposited on rabbit embryos during passage through the oviduct; rabbit blastocysts cultured from the 1-cell stage in vitro have no mucin coat. When cultured blastocysts are transferred to recipients, the lack of mucin coat might account in part for subsequent failure of pregnancy. We have investigated the possibility that mucin coat deposition is induced following transfer of in vitro 72 h-cultured blastocysts to oviducts of asynchronous or synchronous recipients.

Frequency of sex chromosomal mosaicism in bovine embryos and its effects on sexing using a single blastomere by PCR.

Assessment of nuclear status is important when a biopsied single blastomere is used for embryo sexing. In this study we investigated the nuclear status of blastomeres derived from 8- to 16-cell stage in vitro fertilised bovine embryos to determine the representativeness of a single blastomere for embryo sexing. In 24 embryos analysed, the agreement in sex determination between a biopsied single blastomere and a matched blastocyst by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was 83.