Effects of palmitic acid on localization of embryo cell fate and blastocyst formation gene products.

As obese and overweight patients commonly display hyperlipidemia and are increasingly accessing fertility clinics for their conception needs, our studies are directed at understanding the effects of hyperlipidemia on early pregnancy. We have focused on investigating palmitic acid (PA) and oleic acid (OA) treatment alone and in combination from the mouse two-cell stage embryos as a model for understanding their effects on the mammalian preimplantation embryo. We recently reported that PA exerts a negative effect on mouse two-cell progression to the blastocyst stage, whereas OA co-treatment reverses that negative effect.