The effects of culture media and media components on the development of rat embryos

Abstract

After in vitro culture of rat embryos, blastocyst rates are lower than the other species because of the embryonic block observed in the 2- or 4-cell stages in vitro. Optimal culture media and systems that provide variable physiologic needs in the different stages of rat embryos. The modifications of rat embryo culture media could have a positive effect on increasing the blastocyst rates. However, since the results of rat embryo studies are changed depending on factors like strains preferred, maintenance conditions and different commercial products added to the culture media, the success rate of producing healthy newborns for reproductive biotechnological studies has not yet reached the desired level by using current embryo culture media. Understanding the needs of rat embryos cultured from zygote to blastocyst stage in vitro is important for successful advanced studies such as cloning and transgenesis. The purpose of this review is the effects of different culture media and media components on the preimplantation stages of rat embryos and get a perspective for developing the culture media