The purpose of this study was to determine effects of oxytocin and interleukin-1α on in vitro development of bovine embryo cultured with endometrial epithelial and stromal cells isolated from bovine uterus. The expressions of COX-2 mRNA in bovine endometrium were also studied. When embryos were cultured with epithelial cells, the rate of blastocysts was significantly (p<0.05) higher in embryos treated with oxytocin than that of control group. The rate of hatched blastocysts was also significantly (p<0.05) higher in embryos treated with oxytocin than those of two control groups. On the other hand, when the embryos were cultured with stromal cells, the rate of blastocysts were significantly (p<0.05) higher than those of groups treated with IL-1α, oxytocin and control with stromal cells than that of control group without stromal cells. The rate of blastocysts hatched were also significantly (p<0.05) higher in group treated with IL-1α than those of control group without stromal cells and oxytocin group. In another experiment, COX-2 gene was expressed in embryo group treated with oxytocin during the co-culture of embryos with epithelial cells. In contrast, COX-2 mRNA was expressed in group treated with IL-1α when the embryos were cultured with stromal cell. This result shows that oxytocin and IL-1α were stimulate embryo development in vitro when embryos were cultured with epithelial and stromal cells, and can affect the development of bovine embryos in the uterus.

ABSTRACT  INTRODUCTION  MATERIALS AND METHODS  RESULTS  DISCUSSION  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT  REFERENCES

• Seung-Oh Shin(College of Animal Lqe Science)
• Soo-Bong Park(Dairy Cattle Research Division, National Livestock Research Institute, RDA. Cheonan 330-801. Korea)
• Dong-Seok Lee(College of Animal Lqe Science)
• Hee-Tae Cheong(School of Veterinary Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701. Korea,)
• Boo-Keun Yang(College of Animal Lqe Science)
• Choon-Keun Park(College of Animal Lqe Science, Corresponding author)