Hedgehog (Hh) pathway plays a key role in development from invertebrate to vertebrate. It is known to be involved in cell differentiation, polarity, proliferation, including the development of vertebrate limb and the establishment of flies’ body plan. To investigate how the regulation of Hh pathway affects the development of parthenogenetic murine embryos, the parthenogenetically activated murine embryos were treated with either cyclopamine (Cyc), an antagonist of Hh pathway, or purmorphamine, an agonist of Hh pathway. While Cyc did not affect the blastocyst formation and its total cell number, the chemical reduced the hatching rate of embryos and the expression levels of Fn1 mRNA. The results of the present study show the possibility that Cyc may affect the development of embryos at blastocyst stage by blocking Hh pathway and this may cause detrimental effect to the embryos at peri-, and post-implantation stages.

Abstract
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
  1. Animals and chemicals
  2. Oocytes collection
  3. Parthenogenetic activation and in vitro culture
  4. Nuclear labeling and total cell number count
  5. RNA extraction and reverse transcription
  6. Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR)
  7. Statistical analysis
 RESULTS
  The effects of solvents on parthenogenetic murine embryos.
  The effect of Hh signaling pathway on the hatching rate andthe total cell number in parthenogenetic murine embryos
  The change of gene expression levels in the Cyc-treatedembryos
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES

• Jaehyun Park(Cellular Reprogramming and Embryo Biotechnology Laboratory, Dental Research Institute, BK21, Seoul National University School of Dentistry)
• Jeonghyeon Moon(Cellular Reprogramming and Embryo Biotechnology Laboratory, Dental Research Institute, BK21, Seoul National University School of Dentistry) Correspondence
• Sol Min(Cellular Reprogramming and Embryo Biotechnology Laboratory, Dental Research Institute, BK21, Seoul National University School of Dentistry)
• Stephan Chae(Yongsan International School of Seoul)
• Sangho Roh(Cellular Reprogramming and Embryo Biotechnology Laboratory, Dental Research Institute, BK21, Seoul National University School of Dentistry) Correspondence