Humulus japonicus is an ornamental plant in the Cannabaceae family. Although the mode of action of Humulus japonicus is not fully understood, a strong relationship was observed between anti-inflammatory and anticancer in some types of cells. Recent studies also have shown that Humulus japonicus possesses anti-inflammatory activities and may significantly improve antioxidant potential in Raw 264.7 macrophage cells. Thus, the aim of this study was eva-luated the effect of Humulus japonicus extract on sperm motility and subsequent preimplantation developmental com-petence of the bovine embryos. After in vitro maturation, the oocytes with sperms were exposed in in vitro fertilization (IVF) medium supplemented with Humulus japonicus extract (0.01, 0.05, 0.1 μg/mL, respectively) for 1 day. In our results, exposure of IVF medium to Humulus japonicus extract did not affect sperm motility and percentage of pene-trated oocytes but ROS intensity was significantly decreased by 0.01 μg/mL compared with other groups (p< 0.05). Moreover, treatment with 0.01 μg/mL of Humulus japonicus extract was higher the frequency of blastocyst formation than the any other groups (p<0.05). Otherwise, treatment with 0.01 μg/mL of Humulus japonicus extract not increased the total cell number but reduced apoptotic-positive nuclei number. In conclusion, our results indicate that supple-mentation of Humulus japonicus extract in IVF medium may have important implications for improving early embryo-nic development in bovine embryos

본 연구에서는 한방의학에서 가장 중요한 약재중의 하나인 녹용을 정자의 처리에 있어 녹용약침액 상태로 배양액에 첨가 후 정자에 미치는 영향을 운동성 측면에서 비교해 보았다. 정상정액군에서는 Ham's F-10 배양액에 0.3% BSA가 첨가된 배양액과 Ham's F-10 배양액에 0.3% BSA와 녹용약 침액이 같이 첨가된 배양액에서 24시간 배양한 정자의 운동성이 높았으며, 48시간동안 배양 후의 운동성은 BSh와 녹용약침액이 같이 들어간 경우에서 다른