Effects of growth factors FGF4, TGFα, and TGFβ1 on development of parthenogenetic embryos of C57BL/6 mice

Abstract

We studied the effects of three growth factors, fibroblast growth factor (FGF4), transforming growth factor α (TGFα), and transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1), on development of diploid parthenogenetic embryos of C57BL/6 mice, which are not capable of developing to somatic stages. Parthenogenetic embryos were treated with growth factors at optimal doses in vitro at the morula-blastocyst stages and transplanted in the uterus of pseudopregnant females. FGF4 and TGFα improved the development of parthenogenetic embryos at the preimplantation stages and the number of blastocysts increased under the influence of TGFα. All three growth factors improved the implantation of embryos in the uterus. When FGF4 or TGFβ1 2.4 were added to the nutrient medium, 2.4 or 1.6%, respectively, of parthenogenetic embryos reached the somatic stages in utero. No somitic embryos were observed in the control. The treatment of parthenogenetic embryos with two growth factors, FGF4 and TGFβ1 , simultaneously increased the amount of somatic embryos to 7.5%, while combination of three growth factors in creased the amount of such embryos to 16.7%. In the latter case, some parthenogenetic embryos reached the stage of 25–27 pairs of somites and were 2.0–2.5 mm long. The data we obtained suggest that, when combined, the growth factors FGF4, TGFα, and TGFβ1 possessed a synergistic effect leading to a significant improvement of the development of parthenogenetic C57BL/6 embryos.