Oviductal fluid and growth factors failed to enhance development of porcine embryos

Attempts to improve the yield of bovine blastocysts by incorporating insulin, selenium and transferrin in the <i> in vitro</i> system

“…In the bovine (Zhang et al, 1994) exogenous insulin enhanced maturation and development of in vitro fertilized oocytes. Eberhardt et al (1994) found that insulin receptors were present in the eight-cell porcine embryo and were capable of functioning by the blastocyst stage. Heyner et al' (1993) used insulin alone and in combination with transferrin and sodium selenite to stimulate the development of the one-cell porcine embryo.…”

“…They suggest that it is possible that the requirements for insulin may have been satisfied by the indigenous concentration present in foetal calf serum (FeS) and also consider the possible degradation of insulin (Stubbings~, 1990). Eberhardt et al (1994) showed that porcine embryos responded to the addition of insulin to the culture medium by significantly increasing the cleavage rate and number of cells in the embryo. Heyner et al (1993) used gold labelled insulin in conjunction with high resolution microscopy to show that embryos internalized insulin through receptor mediated endocytosis.…”

“…Heyner et al' (1993) used insulin alone and in combination with transferrin and sodium selenite to stimulate the development of the one-cell porcine embryo. All the treatment groups contained bovine serum albumin (BSA) fraction V. It is possible that the embryo requires a protein supplement, like BSA, for insulin to have a positive effect on blastocyst formation (Eberhardt et al, 1994).…”

Comparison of development of pig zygotes and embryos in simple and complex culture media

“…Continued development and hatching of cultured pig blastocysts appear to require the presence of serum and amino acid supplements in the culture media (Robl and Davis, 1981;Niemann et al, 1983;Stone et al, 1984;Meyen et al, 1989;Rosenkrans et al, 1989). Adding growth factors or oviductal fluid alone to a basai culture medium (NCSU 23) is reported to be of limited value for in vitro development of pig embryos (Eberhardt et al, 1994), but addition of fatty acid-free BSA does enhance development.…”

Comparisons of Culture of Chinese Meishan with Yorkshire Pig Embryosin vitro: Effects of Protein Supplementation and Development

“…Dobrinsky et al (1996) reported detrimental effects of supplementation with fraction V BSA instead of essentially fatty acid-free BSA on developmental rates and mean cell numbers of one-and two-cell embryos from occidental breeds cultured for 4d. Otliers reported beneficial effects of essentially fatty acid-free BSA over fraction V BSA for culture of early porcine embryos (Eberhardt et al, 1994). However, the essentially fatty acid-free BSA lots were different among these studies which could have contributed to the conflicting results.…”