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Antioxidant supplementation of culture medium during embryo development and/or after vitrification-warming; which is the most important?

  • ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To determine the most optimal stage for antioxidant supplementation of culture medium to improve developmental competence, cryotolerance and DNA-fragmentation of bovine embryos.

Methods

Presumptive zygotes were first cultured in presence or absence of β-mercaptoethanol (β-ME), for 8 days. Subsequently, half of the expanded blastocysts developed in both groups were vitrified, warmed within 30 min and post-warming embryos along with their corresponding non-vitrified embryos were cultured for two further days in presence or absence of (100 µM) βME.

Results

For vitrified and non-vitrified embryos, the best effect was found when βME was added from day 1 of in vitro culture in continuation with post-warming culture period. Day 1–8 supplementation significantly increased the rates of cleavage, day 7 and day 8 blastocyst production. For non-vitrified embryos, βME addition during day 1–8 and/or 9–10 of embryo culture improved both hatching rate and quality of hatched embryos. For vitrified embryos, however, the percentage of DNA-fragmentation (18.5%) was significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) than that of embryos developed in absence of βME but supplemented with βME during post-warming period (13.5%).

Conclusions

Exogenous antioxidant increases the chance of embryos, even those of fair-quality, to develop to blastocyst. However, antioxidant inclusion during in vitro embryo development is not sufficient to maintain the redox state of these embryos during the critical period of post-warming embryo culture, and therefore, there should be a surplus source of exogenous antioxidant during post-warming embryo culture.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the grant of Royan Institute of I.R.I. The authors would like to thank Dr. H. Gurabi and Dr. A. Vosough for their full support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Experimental Embryology, Cell Sciences Research Centre, Royan Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

    S. M. Hosseini, M. Hajian, P. Abedi, L. Hosseini, S. Ostadhosseini, F. Moulavi & Mohammad H. Nasr-Esfahani

  2. Department of Basic Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Marvdash Branch, Marvdasht, Iran

    M. Forouzanfar

  3. Department of Anatomy, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    V. Asgari, H. Sadeghi & H. Bahramian

  4. FKA Animal Husbandry and Agriculture Co, Isfahan, Iran

    M. Safahani Langrroodi

  5. Department of Animal Science, Agricultural Faculty, Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan Branch, Isfahan, Iran

    Sh. Eghbalsaied

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  1. S. M. Hosseini
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  2. M. Forouzanfar
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  13. Mohammad H. Nasr-Esfahani
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Correspondence to Mohammad H. Nasr-Esfahani.

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Hosseini, S.M., Forouzanfar, M., Hajian, M. et al. Antioxidant supplementation of culture medium during embryo development and/or after vitrification-warming; which is the most important?. J Assist Reprod Genet 26, 355–364 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-009-9317-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-009-9317-7

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