Table 4.
Percentage of methylation in the CpG islands of the specific genes †.
| Function | Gene | E7F | E5C | E20C | E8F | p-Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Growth & Development |
SOX2 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.62 |
| NANOG | 46.9 a | 63.3 a,b | 53.1 a | 85.7 b | <0.0001 | |
| Embryo-maternal communication | ESR1 | 64.3 a,b | 39.3 b,c | 28.6 c | 78.6 a | <0.0001 |
| CYP19A1 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | NS | |
| PTGES2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | NS | |
| Methylation | DNMT1 | 89.3 a,b | 85.7 a,b | 75.0 b | 96.4 a | 0.009 |
| DNMT3a | 78.6 a | 100.0 b | 89.3 a,b | 100.0 b | 0.006 | |
| DNMT3b | 53.6 | 30.4 | 44.6 | 33.9 | 0.052 |
† Specific genes related to growth & development, embryo-maternal recognition, and methylation functions in fresh control (E7F and E8F) and stored embryos (E5C and E20C); embryos day seven fresh, E7F; stored at 5 °C, E5C, and 20 °C, E20C; fresh embryos day eight, E8F. a,b,c Differences among groups within genes are indicated by superscript letters and are highlighted in gray (p < 0.05).