Development of serum-free culture systems for the ruminant embryo and subsequent assessment of embryo viability.

Abstract

The mammalian embryo undergoes considerable changes in its physiology and energy metabolism as it proceeds from the zygote to the blastocyst stage. Complete development of the mammalian zygote in vitro was restricted to a few strains of mice and their F1 hybrids for many years, as the ruminant embryo arrested development at the 8- to 16-cell stage. The introduction of co-culture of ruminant embryos with somatic cells in the mid-1980s helped to alleviate this in vitro induced arrest. However, such culture systems required the use of complex tissue culture media and serum. Serum has subsequently been shown to induce several abnormalities during embryo development in culture and has been associ..