In the early development of parthenogenetic embryo, cytoplasm and nucleic acid fragmentation may be a cause of lower embryo development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether embryonic development and apoptosis factors can be reduced by controlling the in-vitro culture environment by the addition of hormones, pregnancy serum and uterine milk. Our study showed that the activity of Casp-3 increased within the cytoplasm when artificially used hormones to induce the incubation environment, and PCNA's manifestation was low. However, the addition of pregnant serum appeared to lower the Casp-3 activity compared to the other groups. In addition, MMP-9 activity was increased and early embryo development and cytoplasmic fidelity were also increased. Therefore, the results of the present study showed that the use of gestational serum in the development of parthenogenetic embryo inhibit apoptosis and increases cytoplasmic reorganization by natural environmental control in in vitro culture.
Process quality control, which prevents problems and risks that may occur in products and processes, has been recognized as an important issue, and SPC techniques have been used for this purpose. Process Capability Index (PCI) is useful Statistical Process Control (SPC) tool that is measure of process diagnostic and assessment tools widely use in industrial field. It has advantage of easy to calculate and easy to use in the field. Cp and Cpk are traditional PCIs. These traditional Cp and Cpk were used only as a measure of process capability, taking into account the quality variance or the bias of the process mean. These are not given information about the characteristic value does not match the target value of the process and this has the disadvantage that it is difficult to assess the economic losses that may arise in the enterprise. Studies of this process capability index by many scholars actively for supplement of its disadvantage. These studies to evaluate the capability of situation of various field has presented a new process capability index. Cpm is considers both the process variation and the process deviation from target value. And Cpm + is considers economic loss for the process deviation from target value. In this paper we developed an improved Expected Loss Capability Index using Reflected Normal Loss Function of Spring. This has the advantage that it is easy to realistically reflect the loss when the specification is asymmetric around the target value. And check the correlation between existing traditional process capability index (Cpk) and new one. Finally, we propose the criteria for classification about developed process capability index.
Control chart is representative tools of statistical process control (SPC). It is a graph that plotting the characteristic values from the process . It has two steps (or Phase). First step is a procedure for finding a process parameters. It is called PhaseⅠ. This step is to find the process parameters by using data obtained from in-controlled process. It is a step that the standard value was not determined. Another step is monitoring process by already known process parameters from PhaseⅠ. It is called Phase Ⅱ. These control chart is the process quality characteristic value for management, which is plotted dot whether the existence within the control limit or not. But, this is not given information about the economic loss that occurs when a product characteristic value does not match the target value. In order to meet the customer needs, company not only consider stability of the process variation but also produce the product that is meet the target value. Taguchi’s quadratic loss function is include information about economic loss that occurred by the mismatch the target value. However, Taguchi’s quadratic loss function is very simple quadratic curve. It is difficult to realistically reflect the increased amount of loss that due to a deviation from the target value. Also, it can be well explained by only on condition that the normal process. Spiring proposed an alternative loss function that called reflected normal loss function (RNLF). In this paper, we design a new control chart for overcome these disadvantage by using the Spiring’s RNLF. And we demonstrate effectiveness of new control chart by comparing its average run length (ARL) with x-R control chart and expected loss control chart (ELCC).
In order to improve the cryopreservation by vitrification or slow freezing of nuclear transplant rabbit embryos, the effects of factors affecting embryo cryopreservation such as cryoprotectants, equilibration, cooling rate and post-thaw dilution on post-thaw survial and development were determined using intact embryos of morular stage. And the post-thaw development of nuclear transplanted embryos cryopreserved under the optimal conditions examined was compared between vitrification and slow freezing. The cryoprotectant solution used was ethyleneglycol-ficoll-sucrose (EFS) or ethyleneglycol-poly-vinylpyrrolidone-galactose- I (EPG- I ) for vitrification, and EPG- II for slow freezing. To examine the viability of frozen-thawed embryos, the nuclear transplanted embryos were co-cultured in TCM-199 plus 10% FBS with bovine oviduct epithelial cells(BOEC) for 24 hrs and the intact morulae were co-cultured with BOEC for 5 days and 3 days to hatching blastocyst stage in 39 ˚C 5% incubator. The results obtained were as follows: Following vitrification with EFS, the post-thaw development of rabbit morulae to hatching blastocyst was significantly(P<0.05) higher in compacted stage(82.4%) than in early morular stage(60.0%). The post-thaw development of compacted morulae to hatching blastocyst was similarly high in vitrification with EFS(82.4%), EPG- I (85.0%) and in slow freezing with EPG- II (83.3%). Following vitrification with EPG- I, the post-thaw development of intact rabbit morulae to hatching blastocyst was similar as 78.0% and 85.0% in 1-step and 2-step post-thaw dilution, respectively. The post-thaw development of nuclear transplanted rabbit embryos of compacted morulae stage to hatching blastocyst was similarly 43.6% and 40.0% in vitrification with EPG- Iand slow freezing with EPG- II, respectively. These results indicated that the rabbit nuclear transplant and intact embryos of morulae stage could be well cryopreserved with either vitrification or slow freezing procedure.
"Epigenetics" means the study of heritable changes in gene-activity without changes in DNA sequences. Methylation of the cytosine residue in a CpG dinucleotide sequence is a characteristic of the vertebrate genome. In vertebrates, methylation of DNA mainly occurs at the 5′-position of cytosine in a CpG dinucleotide forming 5-methylcytosine. Methylation of DNA plays a profound role in transcriptional repression of gene expression through several mechanisms. Generally, DNA of inactive genes is more heavily methylated than that of active ones; conversely demethylation of DNA reactivates gene expression in vivo and in vitro.