The Effect of Hypoxia Condition on NMRI Mouse Two-cell Embryo Development

Subject Areas : Journal of Animal Biology

D. Bagheri ¹ , M. Dashtizad ² , M. Daliri ³ , E. Hashemi ⁴ , A. Rahim Tayefeh ⁵

1 - Department of Animal Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB. Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of Animal Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB. Tehran, Iran
3 - Department of Animal Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB. Tehran, Iran
4 - Department of Animal Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB. Tehran, Iran
5 - Department of Animal Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB. Tehran, Iran

Received: 2017-06-17 Accepted : 2017-06-17 Published : 2017-05-22

Keywords: Blastocyst cell number, Embryo culture, Implantation, Hypoxia,

Abstract :

Many factors can influence the quality of embryos produced in vitro. Oxygen concentration is one of these environment parameters, which its high level can induce the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) causing detrimental effects on embryo. Pronuclear stage is the critical time of embryo development, affected by oxygen toxicity more than other stages, so that destructive impacts of oxygen may disappear when in vitro culture initiates from next stages. The present study was conducted to compare the effects of two-oxygen concentration, atmospheric (20% O2) and hypoxic (5% O2) on development of 2-cell embryos to the blastocyst stage. Two-cell embryos were divided randomly into 2 groups including hypoxic and atmospheric groups and were cultured to the blastocyst stage under mentioned conditions. Finally, the blastocysts quality was evaluated in terms of blastocyst formation, hatching rate, cell number and implantation rate after embryo transfer. The results showed a significant increase in the blastocyst formation, hatching and implantation rates in the hypoxic group compared to atmospheric one (P<0.05). Furthermore, total cell number and inner cell mass (ICM)/total cell number were improved in hypoxic group (P<0.05). Our results not only highlighted the fact that hypoxia condition can support embryo development better than atmospheric one, but also showed that contrary to the last reports, destructive effect of oxygen could affect the quality of mouse embryos during all developmental stages.

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