Developmental Competence of Early Stage Porcine Embryos Cultured in Medium with Different Energy Substrate in vitro

Abstract

To elucidate the effect of energy requirement during the early embryonic development on their developmentalability to develop to blastocyst stage, in vitro fertilized (IVF) porcine one-cell embryos were cultured in modifiedNorth Carolina State University (NCSU)-37 supplemented with different energy substrate. Result indicated that thecleavage rate of embryos in Pyr-Lac and Gluc-Pyr-Lact groups was significantly higher than in those in Gluc groupand Gluc-Rib group (P < 0.05). At Day 6 of culture, the highest proportion of embryos develop to the blastocyst stagewas obtained in the presence of pyruvate-lactate only. In the medium with glucose, the addition of pyruvate-lactateor ribose slightly increased the proportion of embryos develop to the blastocyst stage, however the value were notsignificantly different form those obtained in the presence of glucose only. The mean cell number in blastocystsderived from Pyr-Lac and Gluc-Pyr-Lact groups were significantly higher than those in the Gluc group (P < 0.05).These results indicated that the presence of glucose only, as energy substrate, during the first 2 days of in vitro culture(IVC) caused a decrease in development of in vitro produced (IVP) porcine embryos to the blastocyst stage and meancell number in blastocysts .Keywords: porcine embryos-energy substrate-in vitro culture