Blastomere content of cultured/frozen bovine demiembryos
Schmidt, M.; Smith, S.D.; Avery, B.; Purwantara, B.; Greve, T.
Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 33(4): 363-367
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0044-605X PMID: 1488952 Document Number: 392883
In a study designed to evaluate whether a period of co-culture with bovine oviduct epithelial cells (BOEC) could improve the tolerance of bisected bovine embryos to freezing and thawing, day 6 embryos were bisected and the resulting demiembryos were stained with Hoechst 33342; cell counts were made by counting intact blastomere nuclei. Of these, 11 were stained as freshly manufactured demiembryos, 25 after co-culture for 24 h with BOEC and 37 stained after 24 h co-culture and freezing and thawing. The staining showed that there was no significant difference in cell count of demiembryos that were stained immediately after bisection, compared to those that were co-cultured for 24 h. Also, the co-cultured/frozen/thawed demiembryos had a significant decrease in cell numbers compared to the non-frozen demiembryos.