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. 1994 Jun 1;35(2):141–147. doi: 10.1186/BF03548341

Effect of Growth Factors on Bovine Blastocyst Development in a Serum-Free Medium

Effekten av tillvaxtfaktorer på notkreatursembryons utveckling till blastocyster ι ett serum-fritt medium

M Shamsuddin 1,✉
PMCID: PMC8101388  PMID: 7942379

Abstract

Shamsuddin, M.: Effect of growth factors on bovine blastocyst development in a serum-free medium. Acta vet. scand. 1994, 35, 141-147. - To investigate the effect of growth factors on pre-implantation development, bovine zygotes, produced by in vitro fertilization (IVF) of in vitro-matured (IVM) oocytes, were cultured in a serum-free medium to which the following growth factors were added one at a time: epidermal growth factor (EGF), acidic fibroblast growth factor (a-FGF), insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II), platelet-derived growth factor from human platelets (PDGF), and platelet-derived growth factor-AB, human, recombinant (PDGF-AB). All growth factors were added at a dose of either 10 or 50 ng/ml, except PDGF which was added at a dose of either 5 or 15 ng/ml. The control medium was TCM 199 supplemented with sodium pyruvate (0.25 mmol/1), BSA (10 mg/ml), insulin (5 μg/ml), transferrin (5 μg/ml), and sodium selenite (5 ng/ml). Embryos were cultured for 8 days (day of insemination = Day 0). The mean percentages of first cleavage on Day 2 varied from 67% to 86% and the differences between the 2 doses, or between the control and growth factor- treated groups were not significant (p≥0.13). The effects of the two doses on subsequent development up to the blastocyst stage did not differ either (p≥0.12). There was no stimulatory effect of any of the used exogenous growth factors on embryo development up to the morula or blastocyst stage on Day 7, or blastocyst stage on Day 8. Moreover, medium supplemented with PDGF had fewer blastocysts than the control (p≤0.03). The results indicate that growth factor supplementation may not necessarily increase the yield of blastocysts from bovine IVM-IVF oocytes in a serum-free medium.

Keywords: embryo, IVM-IVF

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Professor Heriberto Rodriguez-Martinez and Dr. Birgitta Larsson for critically revising the manuscript and for translating the summary into the Swedish language, and Ms. Aili Colbing and Ms. Gunilia Lekselius for technical assistance. Frozen semen was generously supplied by Elitsemin, Eskilstuna, Sweden. The project received financial support from the Council of Ministers of the Nordic Countries and the Swedish Council for Forestry and Agricultural Research.(Received September 21, 1993; accepted December 22, 1993).

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