In-vitro development and implantation of human embryos following culture on fetal bovine uterine fibroblast cells

Abstract

Human zygotes resulting from IVF were placed in two different culture systems to evaluate in-vitro development and to establish pregnancies in patients following embryo replacement. Treatment A (control) consisted of culturing zygotes in a modified Earle's Balanced Salt solution while treatment B consisted of culturing zygotes on a monolayer of fetal bovine uterine fibroblasts in this same culture medium. At the time of embryo replacement, embryos within treatments A and B had 3.7 and 4.3 blastomeres present, respectively. After 24 h in culture, the cellular fragmentation rate for treatment A embryos was 0.85 which was greater (P less than 0.05) than the fragmentation rate of 0.40 for embryos within treatment B. The incidence of implantation for patients whose embryos were given treatment A was 17.0% which was lower (P less than 0.05) than 35% for those given treatment B. Implantation rates increased with time in culture (43%) for treatment B embryos. Culture by treatment B of three-pronucleate zygotes resulted in 7/9 and 4/9 reaching the blastocyst and expanded blastocyst stages, respectively, whereas only 1/26 three-pronucleate zygotes cultured using treatment A reached either of these stages.

Peptides extracted from vero cell cultures overcome the blastocyst block of mouse embryos in a serum-free medium

“…In humans, the critical eightcell and morula stage blocks were bypassed by coculture with oviductal cells. Such oviduct-specific glycoproteins were reported in animals such as sheep, cattle, mouse, baboon, and humans (18)(19)(20).…”

Vero Cell Co-culture Counteracts the Detrimental Effects of Hydrosalpinx Fluid on the Development of Mouse Embryos in vitro

“…In hatching process, however, the beneficial effects of Vero cells were significantly noted both at 0.8% and 1.2% HSF concentrations. It is suggested that Vero cells assist the hatching process either by reducing substances which are inhibitory to the hatching process or by thinning the zona pellucida, which may be due to the physical expansion of blastocyst or release of zona digestive substances, as demonstrated by Wiemer et al (17). Thus, certain factors in the coculture system seem to overcome the zona hardening process, which may be triggered by a detrimental environment.…”

Embryo coculture: A review

“…Early studies demonstrated improvements in pre-embryo grade, an increase in average number of blastomeres, and a decrease in fragmentation rates with coculture of embryos on nonhuman cell lines. [6][7][8] Morgan et al for example, demonstrated decreased fragmentation, increased blastomere expansion, and improved clinical pregnancy rates for embryos cocultured with bovine oviduct epithelial cells compared with controls. [24] Similarly, Magli, et al, randomized patients to conventional media or coculture on a Vero cell layer and found a higher cleavage rate and improved embryo morphology in the coculture.…”

“…In 1989, Wiemer, et al demonstrated improvements in morphology, implantation rate, and clinical pregnancy rate for embryos cultured on bovine uterine epithelial cells compared with conventional media. [6,7] Bongso, et al, in the same year, demonstrated improvements in embryo quality among embryos cultured with human oviduct epithelial cells obtained from women undergoing hysterectomy. [8] These initial studies led to optimism that the coculture of human embryos would lead to an optimized in-vitro environment and in turn, improvements in IVF cycle outcomes.…”