The use of a two-step removal protocol and optimized culture conditions improve development and quality of zona free mouse embryos.

The zona pellucida (ZP) plays an important role in both the fertilization and embryonic development. For the successful handling of early stage blastomeres for differentiation analysis, the production of identical twins or quadruplets, nuclear transfer or gene introduction requires the removal of the ZP (ZPR). Although single use of either acidic Tyrode's solution or pronase are commonly used for ZPR, long-term exposure to these agents can result in the inhibition of development with the collapse of the three-dimensional blastomere structure.

Chemical modification of carbon black by a simple non-liquid-phase approach.

Chemical modification is the most popular and efficacious approach to improve dispersion stability for commercial carbon blacks in organic media. Even though this method has been used successfully in liquid systems, there have been few reports of chemical modification of carbon black in non-liquid-phase systems. In the present work, a simple non-liquid-phase approach to preparing modified carbon black with high dispersibility and stability in polar organic media from an industrial carbon black, N220, is reported.