Promotion of Development of Bovine Embryos Produced In Vitro by Addition of Cysteine and ß-Mercaptoethanol to a Chemically Defined Culture System

¹ Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames 50011-3150

The aim of this research was to determine the effects of L-cysteine and ß-mercaptoethanol on the in vitro development of bovine embryos that had been produced in vitro. A 2 x 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 ß-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 ß-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 ß-mercaptoethanol had more cells at the blastocyst stage than did embryos cultured in medium without ß-mercaptoethanol. These findings provide evidence that ß-mercaptoethanol and L-cysteine promote increased embryonic development and that ß-mercaptoethanol increases the number of cells in bovine embryos produced in vitro and cultured in a cell-free, protein-free culture system.

Key Words: embryo • culture • ßbeta;-mercaptoethanol • cysteine

Submitted on May 19, 1997
Accepted on September 18, 1997

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Takahashi, T. Nagai, N. Okamura, H. Takahashi, and A. Okano Promoting Effect of {beta}-Mercaptoethanol on In Vitro Development under Oxidative Stress and Cystine Uptake of Bovine Embryos Biol Reprod, March 1, 2002; 66(3): 562 - 567. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]