Light Mineral Oil is a material generally used as an overlay covering microdrops of culture medium in petri dishes. Although Light Mineral Oil can protect the damage by oxidation in air, it can't completely protect the damage by evaporation and alteration of pH and osmolality in culture medium. To minimize the damage by evaporation and alteration of pH and osmolality, we assumed that Heavy Mineral Oil could be used as an alternative. Heavy Mineral Oil is high purity paraffin oil which has more viscosity and density than Light Mineral Oil, so it can prevent evaporation and maintain stable osmolality and pH in culture medium more than Light Mineral Oil. The objective of this study was to examine whether the effect of Heavy Mineral Oil is superior to the effect of Light Mineral Oil during in vitro cultivation of porcine oocytes. According to the data of repeated six experiments, survival and cleavage rate of porcine oocytes, and cell number of blastocysts were not significantly different between two groups. However, the in vitro development rate of porcine parthenogenetic embryo was significantly higher in Heavy Mineral Oil group than in Light Mineral Oil group (Light, 36.6% ± 3.9%; and Heavy, 52.1% ± 6.4%, p < 0.05). Thus, these results indicated that the treatment of Heavy Mineral Oil can improve the in vitro developmental capacity of porcine parthenogenetic embryos compared to Light Mineral Oil.

The national natural monument of Korea, Jeju Black Cattle (JBC), it is a native species with unique blood line. This cattle breed needs mass production and industrialization to further improve and preserve their characteristics. This study was to examine whether there were differences in in vitro developmental rates according to body weight (<300, 300 ~ 350, 350 ~ 400 and >400 kg) and grade (1++, 1+, 1, 2 and 3), and oocyte donors or non-donors. As a method of IVM, groups of ten cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) were cultured in 50 μl droplets of maturation medium (TCM199 supplemented with 10% FBS, 0.2 mM sodium pyruvate, 1 μg/ml follicle-stimulating hormone, 1 μg/ml estradiol-17β) under mineral oil at 38.8℃ in an incubator with a 5% CO2 atmosphere for 22 to 24 h. For IVF, 44 ul IVF drop contained 10 oocytes with sperm concentration of 1 × 106 cells/ml, and then 2 μl heparin and 2 μl PHE (20 μM peicillamine, 10 μM hypotaurine, 2 μM epinephrine) were added. For IVC, after 44±2 h of incubation, cleaved embryos were incubated in CR1aa medium containing 3 mg/ml FAF-BSA until day 4 at 38.8℃ in a 5% CO2 incubator. Embryos were then cultured in CR1aa medium containing 10% FBS until day 8. As a result, in vitro development rates were the highest in 350 ~ 400 kg body weight group and in 1++ grade group than other groups (p<0.05). However, there was no difference in in vitro developmental capacity of classified donor and non-donor oocyte groups. This result demonstrated that the better in vitro developmental capacity was obtained in high level originated oocyte groups (350 ~ 400kg, 1++ grade) than in others, while there was no different in donor types.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of transfer temperature of epididymis on survival rate of semen and development ability of B6D2F1 mice embryos. No significant differences were noted in the survival rate of semen (59.0% ± 0.1 vs. 47.6% ± 0.1), in vitro fertilization rate (90.7% ± 0.1 vs. 90.7% ± 0.1), developmental rate (90.0% ± 0.1 vs. 90.0% ± 0.1), and blastocysts formation rate (53.1% ± 0.2 vs. 52.3% ± 0.2) between groups. (NS; P>0.05). However, the zona hatched rate was significantly higher in the 4°C group compared to those of the 37°C group (47.8% ± 0.1 vs. 25.6% ± 0.2; p<0.05). When it comes to cell numbers of blastocysts, the % ICM (/total cells) was significantly higher in the group of 4°C compared to the 37°C (27.0% ± 0.1 vs. 18.3% ± 0.1; p<0.05). However there were no differences in total cell numbers (72.7 ± 31.6 vs. 62.0 ± 36.6), ICM cell numbers (17.0 ± 7.8 vs. 14.6 ± 8.6), TE cell numbers (55.8 ± 29.8 vs. 64.0 ± 24.4), the ratio of ICM:TE (1:4.2 ± 4.1 vs. 1:6.4 ± 7.2) between two groups (NS; P>0.05).Taken altogether, it is expected to achieve the best developmental ability of B6D2F1 mice embryos in the transfer temperature of epididymis. Also these results can provide fundamental data to maximize culture condition for in vitro fertilization on B6D2F1 mice. In future, therefore, it is expected that results herein might be applied for in vitro culture of human embryos.

Jeju Black Cattle (JBC) is an indigenous species of Korea and their mass production and industrialization are required for this high quality indigenous species. For production of elite JBC zygotes, selection of high quality sperm is necessary for in vitro fertilizatioin. In this study, we compared the sperm fertility and developmental capacity of IVF embryos using various JBC sperm (Bull A, B and C). The frozen semen was thawed and confirmed sperm viability and motility. In addition, frozen-thawed sperm was used for a chlorotetracycline(CTC) staining assay and in vitro fertilization. Sperm were classified into three staining patterns. The F pattern is indicative of uncapacitated sperm, the B pattern is indicative of capacitating and capacitated sperm and the AR pattern is indicative of acrosome-reacting sperm or acrosome-reacted sperm, respectively. Several kinds of JBC sperm was inseminated in 44 ㎕ IVF drop contained 10 oocytes with sperm concentration of 1 × 106 cells/ml, and then 2 ㎕ heparin and 2 ㎕ PHE (20 μM penicillamine, 10 μM hypotaurine, 2 μM epinephrine) were added. The sperm viability and motility were higher in sperm 3 species (n=8). When we confirmed sperm capacitation, F pattern and B pattern rate were higher than AR pattern in sperm A group. After IVF, the rates of cleavage and blastocyst development were higher in sperm C group compared to other sperm group. However, the cell number of blastocyst was higher in sperm E group. These results demonstrate that the use of sperm C was effective in production of elite JBC IVF embryos. Additional experimental data are required for more accurate analysis.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique is a key point of producing transgenic animal disease models. During in vitro production of SCNT embryo, the quality of matured oocytes are one of the important factors that regulate embryo developmental capacity. In preliminary test, we confirmed the effect of fibroblast growth factor 10 (FGF10) on porcine oocyte maturation. In this study, we investigated the developmental potential of SCNT embryos treated with the 10 ng/ml FGF10 (10 F) during in vitro maturation of recipient oocytes. The polar body emission rate was significantly higher in the 10 F treated group than control group. After SCNT, although the rate of fusion was no significant difference, the rate of cleavage and blastocyst formation was significantly increased in the 10 F treated group (p<0.05). In 10 F treated group, the total cell number was increased and the percentage of apoptotic cell was decreased in the blastocyst stage at day 7 (p<0.1). The transcription level of apoptosis relative gene, Casp3 was significantly decreased, while anti-apoptosis gene BCL2l1 was increased in the 10 F treated group compared to control group. The 10 F treated group was highly expressed the reprogramming related genes, Sox2 and POU5f1. Also, the first cleaving time was more faster and the percentage of cell block was significantly lower in 10 F treated group than in control group. In this study, we confirmed that 10 ng/ml FGF10 has effect on enhance the oocyte maturation and developmental capacity. These results demonstrate that FGF10 treatment can be used for in vitro development of porcine SCNT embryos and subsequent production of transgenic animal model.

본 연구는 인간 난관액 또는 자궁액 내에 존재하는 에너지원이 생쥐 2-세포기 배의 체외 발달에 미치는 영향을 조사하기 위하여 실시하였다. ICR 암 생쥐에 5 IU hCG 주사 후 46～50시간에 2-세포기 배를 회수하였다. 회수된 배는 3가지 배양 조건 [대조군: 0 mM, Group A: glucose(G) 0.5 mM + pyruvate(P) 0.32 mM + lactate(L) 10.5 mM, Group B: G 3.15 mM + P 0.1 mM + L 5.83 mM]에서 72시간 배양하였다. 배양 24 시간에 상실배 출현율은 group A (72.3%)와 group B (56.6%)가 대조군(34.9%)보다 유의하게 높았다(p<0.05). 그러나 48시간에 배반포기 배 출현율은 대조군(51.8%)이 group A (39.8%)와 group B (28.9%)보다 유의하게 (p<0.05) 높았다. 72시간에 투명대 부착 (ZiB, 41.0～51.8%), 투명대 탈출 (ZeB, 18.1～32.5%) 및 총 배반포기 배 출현율 (68.7～73.5%)은 실험군 간에 통계적인 차이가 없었다. 배반포기 배의 평균 세포수와 ICM 세포수는 group A (70.8, 13.4)와 group B (64.4, 11.8)가 대조군 (53.1, 5.7)보다 유의하게(p<0.05) 많았고, 통계적인 유의차는 없었으나 group A가 group B보다 많은 경향이었다. 총 세포수에 대한 ICM 비율은 group A(22.9%)와 group B(23.7%)가 대조군(14.2%)보다 유의하게(p<0.05) 높았다. 영양배엽(TE) 세포수(34.1～45.1)는 실험군 간에 통계적인 차이가 없었다. ICM에 대한 TE 비율(ICM:TE ratio)은 대조군(1:6.0)이 group A(1:3.4)나 group B(1:3.4)보다 유의하게(p<0.05) 높았다. 생쥐 2-세포기 배를 배양하여 72시간까지의 배 발달율을 살펴보면 배양액에 에너지원을 첨가하는 것이 효과적이었으며, 자궁액 농도보다는 난관액 농도로 에너지원을 조절했을 때 배 발생 능력이 높은 경향을 보였다.

This research was conducted to observe developmental capacity of the early embryos aggrigated to phytohemagglutinin-M(PHA-M) in the culture of mouse embryos in vitro. The results showed that the development of blastocyst increased to 2-celT >< 2-cell : 68. 9%, 4-cell 4-cell : 92.5% and 8-cell 8-cell : 97.3% in the aggrigated embryos of ICR mouse, and 2-cell 2-cell : 90.0%, 4-cell 4-cell : 93.9% and 8-cell 8-cell : 100% in the aggrigated embryos of two different strains (ICR CBA/J mouse). (Key words : aggrigated embryos, in vitro 2-cell block, phytohemagglutinin-M, blastocyst)