Effect of an altered hormonal environment by blood plasma collected after adrenocorticotropic administration on embryo development and gene expression in porcine embryos.

Early embryonic development may be affected by adrenal hyperactivity in stressful situations which may lead to endocrine changes in the embryo environment. A sensitive period in porcine embryo development is the 4-cell stage when the embryo genome activation occurs. A mixed in vivo-in vitro system was implemented to test whether an altered milieu around this stage could affect embryo development and blastocyst quality in the porcine model.

Increased apoptosis, reduced Wnt/β-catenin signaling, and altered tail development in zebrafish embryos exposed to a human-relevant chemical mixture.

A wide variety of anthropogenic chemicals is detected in humans and wildlife and the health effects of various chemical exposures are not well understood. Early life stages are generally the most susceptible to chemical disruption and developmental exposure can cause disease in adulthood, but the mechanistic understanding of such effects is poor. Within the EU project EDC-MixRisk, a chemical mixture (Mixture G) was identified in the Swedish pregnancy cohort SELMA by the inverse association between levels in women at around gestational week ten with birth weight of their children.

fertilisation in domestic mammals-a brief overview.

Many factors influence the final oocyte maturation, fertilisation, and early embryo development, and there are both similarities and differences between species. When comparing the advancement of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), the development in the bovine species is not far behind the medical front, with around one million -produced bovine embryos each year. This rate of progress is not seen in the other domestic species.

DNA methylation pattern of bovine blastocysts associated with hyperinsulinemia in vitro.

Insulin functions as a regulator of metabolism and plays an important role in reproduction. Hyperinsulinemia is often observed in patients with obesity and diabetes type 2 and is known to impair fertility, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are only partly understood. Metabolic programming through epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation during embryonic development can lead to health implications for the offspring later in life.