The Problem:
Through advanced genetics, In vitro produced (IVP) cattle embryos can increase farm protein and milk production by improving important herd production traits for average daily gain and milk yield. Unfortunately, IVP cattle embryo development is limited by in vitro culture conditions including embryo culture media which are considered suboptimal.
The Solution:
Researchers at the University of Tennessee have developed advanced embryo culture media/systems that improve IVP cattle embryo developmental kinetics. The systems involve conditioning current standard IVP cattle embryo culture media using epithelial cells collected from bovine oviducts and uteri. Data from two recent studies suggests that the conditioned media/systems improves IVP cattle embryo (blastocyst) formation, time to formation and quality. Ongoing research is aimed at determining if the conditioned media can improve quality of cryogenically frozen embryos and post-embryo transfer survival. The researchers are also characterizing the media to identify oviduct and uterine molecules important for embryonic development.
Figure 1.
Compared to Control media (CON-CON), advanced embryo culture media/systems improve (A) Day 7 IVP bovine blastocyst formation rate (percent of 16-32 cell embryos that reached the blastocyst stage), (B) Day 8 IVP blastocyst quality scores (lower score indicates better quality) and (C) Day 7 IVP bovine embryo time to blastocyst.
Benefits:
Dr. Mathew received his MS and PhD in Animal Sciences with a focus in Reproductive Physiology from the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA. He then completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the University College Dublin, Ireland, where he investigated in vitro produced cattle embryo development and molecular interactions between the in vitro produced embryo and endometrium. His current research interests include 1) methods to improve in vitro produced embryo health and survival, 2) identifying embryonic and maternal genetic products and/or interactions that promote a successful pregnancy and 3) characterizing how disease and environment induced stress reduce fertility with the goal of developing strategies to eliminate or control their impact.