Figure 3. A common, but cell type-specific, fingerprint of embryo manipulation in vitro.

A) A core list of 18 genes were altered by in vitro embryo manipulation, regardless of the culture condition or the method of fertilization. B) Real time qPCR verification of the microarray data. Four of the 18 genes were selected for analysis in IVC blastocysts cultured in KAA-5% O₂ (green) or WM-20% O₂ (red), and the graph shows their expression relative to controls (normalized to 1) from both the microarray (MA) and PCR data. C) 9 pathways were collective enriched in association with the individual microarray experiments evaluating the impacts of fertilization conditions and culture conditions on blastocyst transcription. D-F) A cell type-specific effect of in vitro fertilization. D) Venn diagram showing the differential effects of IVF-WM and 20% oxygen culture conditions on blastocyst vs. inner cell mass (ICM) gene expression and pathway association. E) Only 39 genes and F ) two pathways were concordantly affected in both blastocysts and ICM, in spite of similar conditions of fertilization and culture in vitro. Genes and pathways also present in the ‘Common Fingerprint’ are highlighted in red. Legends (fold changes and p-value) are applicable to all heatmaps in the figure.