Increasing of blastocyst rate and gene expression in co-culture of bovine embryos with adult adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

Purpose: Despite advances in the composition of defined embryo culture media, co-culture with somatic cells is still used for bovine in vitro embryo production (IVEP) in many laboratories worldwide. Granulosa cells are most often used for this purpose, although recent work suggests that co-culture with stem cells of adult or embryonic origin or their derived biomaterials may improve mouse, cattle, and pig embryo development.

Materials And Methods: In experiment 1, in vitro produced bovine embryos were co-cultured in the presence of two concentrations of bovine adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal cells (b-ATMSCs; 10 and 10 cells/mL), in b-ATMSC preconditioned medium (SOF-Cond), or SOF alone (control).

Addition of L-arginine to the fertilization medium enhances subsequent bovine embryo development rates.

Although L-Arginine (ARG) has been reported as a promising bovine sperm capacitation agent, its effects on embryo development are still poorly understood. Herein, we compared the effects of ARG and/or heparin (HEP) addition to the fertilization medium for bovine oocytes on sperm capacitation and embryo development. We chose 10 mM ARG based on blastocyst development rates in a titration experiment.

Effect of dexamethasone on development of in vitro-produced bovine embryos.

Studies in somatic cells have shown that glucocorticoids such as dexamethasone (DEX) may trigger or prevent apoptosis depending on the cell type in culture. Because the dysregulation of apoptosis may lower in vitro embryo production efficiency, we sought to investigate the effects of supplementing IVC medium with DEX (0.1 μg/mL) on embryo morphology, development kinetics, and apoptosis rates of in vitro-produced bovine preimplantation embryos.