Effect of increasing zinc concentrations during in vitro culture of bovine embryos

ANCHORDOQUY JM; ANCHORDOQUY JP; SIRINI MA; TESTA JA; CÉTICA PD; FURNUS C.

Chascomus

Jornada; XVI Jornadas Anuales de la Sociedad Argentina de Biología; 2014

Sociendad Argentina de Biología

In previous studieswe demonstrated that zinc (Zn) supplementationduring in vitro maturation (IVM) improves the quality of bovine oocytes and consequently their competence for developing to blastocyst stage. However, the influence of Zn supplementation during in vitro culture (IVC) of preimplantational bovine embryos has not been yet investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Zn addition during IVC. For this purpose, cumulus oocyte-complexeswere obtained from an abattoir, matured in TCM 199 medium with 10% BFSfor 24 h and then in vitro fertilized. After IVF, presumptive cigoteswere cultured during 8 Days in mSOF with: 0; 0.4; 0.8 and 1.2µg/mL Zn. A completely randomized block designs were used and statistical models included the random effects of block and the fixed effect of treatment. Cleavage and blastocyst rates were analyzed with logistic regression by using the GENMOD procedure (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) with binomial distribution. Data was expressed as percentages. There were no differences in both cleavage rates (59;  64.7; 67.5 and 70 % for 0; 0.4; 0.8 and 1.2 µg/mL Zn) and blastocyst rates (15.7; 20.8; 21.8 and 17.4 for 0, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.2 µg/mL Zn) when Zn was added to IVC medium at any concentration.In conclusion, Zn addition during IVC ofbovine embryos did not modifycleavage and blastocyst rates.