생쥐 초기배아의 체외배양 시 부화에 관련된 단백질 분해효소의 발현 시기와 존재부위를 알아보고 trypsin억제제 benzamidine을 배양액에 첨가하여 부화효소의 역할을 살펴보았다. 부화 효소로 제안되고 있는 trypsin 유사효소의 발현부위를 확인하기 위해 rhodamine이 부착되어 있는 Trypsin subsfrate probe를 이용하여 형광염색하였다. 생쥐 배아의 발생과정에서 trypsin 유사효소의 발현은 후기 상실 배아에서부터 관찰되었으며
This study was conducted to investigate the expression pattern of Trypsin-like enzyme and the effect of a trypsin inhibitor(benzimidine) on hatching process during in-vitro culture of mouse preimplantation embryos. The Trypsin-like enzyme was identified by rhodamine-conjugated Trypsin substrate probe. The expression of trypsin-like enzyme was firstly detected at the late morula stage, and the enzyme was uniformly localized in the trophectoderm of late blastocysts. Especially, intense fluorescence was observed in the blebbing area of hatching blastocysts. Bisbenzamidine, contained in culture media, did not alter embryonic development from 4-cell stage to the expanded blastocyst but decrease the hatching rate in ImM concentration (15.8% vs 89.7%, p<0.02). In the treatment of bisbenzimidine (5mM) for 12 hours according to the embryonic stage of mouse, the hatching rate of control (83.0%) and treatment in late blastocysts (8.7%) were significantly (p<0.01) different. From these results, we suggested that the hatching enzyme having trypsin-like activity was localized from the late morula stage, and the hatching process by this enzyme was activated in the late blastocyst stage of mouse embryos.