Development of a Synthetic Medium for the in Vitro Culture of Bovine Embryos

The aim of this study was to develop a synthetic medium for the in vitro culture of bovine embryos, using various growth factors and cytokines （GF-CYK）： insulin-like growth factorl （IGF-Ⅰ）, insulin-like growth factorⅡ （IGF-Ⅱ）, basic fibroblast growth factor （bFGF）, leukemia inhibitory factor （LIF）, granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor （GM-CSF） and transforming growth factor beta Ⅰ （TGF-β1） ＋ hyaluronan （HA） ＋ recombinant albumin （RA）. The embryos were cultured in synthetic oviduct fluid （SOF） supplemented with： treatment 1 （T1）： bovine serum albumin （BSA） ＋ insulin, transferrin and selenium （ITS） （control）; or treatment 2 （T2）： GF-CYK ＋ HA ＋ RA. The blastocyst rates were not significantly different between TI and T2, at seven days post fertilization （dpf） （28.9% ± 2.4% and 31.8% ±2.2%）, and at 8 dpf （36.5% ±2.4% and 39.1% ±1.9%）, respectively （P 〉 0.05）. The total cell number （TCN） was significantly higher with T2 than that with T1 at 7 dpf（164.9 ±5.3 and 149.7 ±4.0） and 8 dpf （182.7 ±6.4 and 165.