Microfertilization of oocytes and culture of embryos in goat

Abstract

AbstractIn vitro development of goat embryos obtained by fertilizing oocytes using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) was investigated. The results showed that the blastocyst rate was significantly higher (P<0.05) when the embryos were co-cultured with granular cells (GCs) in media CR1aa supplemented with 10% bovine follicular fluid (BFF) (22.2%) than with 5% (13.1%) and 15% BFF (2.7%). When embryos were co-cultured with GCs in SOFaa media, the highest blastocyst rate was obtained from supplementation with 10% BFF (25.1%), which was significantly different from 5% (12.9%) and 15% BFF (3.0%) groups. When 10% BFF and fetus bovine serum (FBS) were added into CR1aa or SOFaa media, the goat ICSI blastocyst rates were 22.6 and 26.9% or 5.8 and 6.1% respectively. These results suggest that both CR1aa and SOFaa could be used as culture media for goat ICSI embryos, 10% BFF could significantly increase the blastocyst rate and BFF was more efficient than FBS for the early in vitro development of goat ICSI embryos.