Fig. 1.

Schematic representation of the murine experimental model used in this study. The effects of branched-chain amino acids (bcaa) and/or insulin depletion (Low, L = 50%) on in vitro blastocyst development and health of the resultant offspring following embryo transfer was studied. Two-cell embryos were in vitro cultured for 66 h until the blastocyst stage. The control medium was termed “normal” (N) and represented 100% of the serum insulin levels and uterine luminal fluid amino acid concentrations (N-Insulin + N-bcaa), including bcaa, found in pregnant (E3.5) mice fed with normal levels of protein (18% casein) taken from [8].