Relationship of in vivo gamete aging and exogenous hormones to early embryo development in rabbits.

Abstract

SummaryOocytes aged before fertilization by delaying insemination for 10 hr resulted in embryonic failure in culture prior to the blastocyst stage, similar to previous studies in vivo (17). Aging of spermatozoa for 10 hr before inducing ovulation with LH administration reduced fertilization and cleavage rates, and reduced the proportion of embryos that developed into blastocysts. The fertilizable life span of spermatozoa was prolonged by the environment of FSH-primed does. Overall the development in culture of embryos recovered from FSH-primed does was equal to or better than the controls. Some one-celled zygotes along with 2- and 4-celled embryos recovered from both groups developed into blastocysts in culture. Thus, the combined techniques of superovulation and embryo culture appear to be well suited to studies of this kind.