Abstract
The aim of this research was to determine the effects of L-cysteine and β-mercaptoethanol on the in vitro development of bovine embryos that had been produced in vitro. A 2 × 3 factorial arrangement of treatments was used to evaluate the effect of 0.63 or 6.9 μM L-cysteine and 0, 10, or 100 μM β-mercaptoethanol on the development of bovine embryos in a chemically defined medium. Embryos containing 6 to 8 cells were randomly allocated to one of the six treatment combinations and were cultured for 7 d. Both β-mercaptoethanol and L-cysteine increased the number of embryos that reached the blastocyst stage of development, although no interaction was observed between the compounds. Embryos that were cultured in the presence of β-mercaptoethanol had more cells at the blastocyst stage than did embryos cultured in medium without β-mercaptoethanol. These findings provide evidence that β-mercaptoethanol and L-cysteine promote increased embryonic development and that β-mercaptoethanol increases the number of cells in bovine embryos produced in vitro and cultured in a cell-free, protein-free culture system.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 369-374 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of Dairy Science |
Volume | 81 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 1998 |
Keywords
- Culture
- Cysteine
- Embryo
- β-mercaptoethanol