The effect of oxygen tension on porcine embryonic development is dependent on embryo type

Reducing oxygen concentration from atmospheric levels during in vitro culture generally, but not invariably, improves embryonic development across a range of species. Since the few published reports of such an action in the pig are contradictory – perhaps a consequence of the derivation of the embryos prior to culture – a study was performed to examine the effect of O 2 tension during culture on three different types of porcine embryos, namely: in vivo flushed embryos, and in vitro matured oocytes either fertilized in vitro or parthenogenetically activated. In vivo embryos ( n = 208) were flushed at the 2–8 cell stage. Cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) destined for IVF or parthenogenetic activation were derived from 2 to 6 mm, post-pubertal ovarian follicles and matured for 48 h in TCM-199. Parthenogenones were generated by activating denuded oocytes ( n = 573) with 10 mM calcium ionophore, followed by 2 mM DMAP prior to culture. The IVF embryos ( n = 971) were produced by fertilizing COCs (day 0) with fresh ejaculated semen in modified tris-based medium for 6 h before cumulus removal. All embryos were cultured in BECM-3 containing 12 mg/mL fatty-acid-free BSA up to day 4, followed by BECM-3 supplemented with 10% calf serum until day 7. The gas environment for IVM/IVF was 5% CO 2 in air, while that for IVC was either 5% CO 2 in air or 5% O 2, 5% CO 2 and 90% N 2. Low O 2 tension increased both day 7 blastocyst rates (high versus low O 2, respectively; 9.3 ± 2.9%: 26/280; 23.9 ± 4.2%: 71/293; P < 0.001) and total cell numbers (39.3 ± 2.9, n = 24 versus 61.2 ± 7.7, n = 61; P = 0.01) of parthenogenetically activated embryos. In contrast, such a treatment neither affected blastocyst rates (89.3 ± 6.9 versus 87.8 ± 7.5) nor cell numbers (87.4 ± 4.5 versus 87.7 ± 4.8) of in vivo flushed embryos. The effect of reduced O 2 concentration on IVF embryos was intermediate, since only cell numbers were improved (69.8 ± 3.5, range = 17–204, n = 49; 88.5 ± 5.8, range = 28–216; n = 66; P < 0.01), equivalent to that recorded in in vivo flushed embryos. However, blastocyst rates were unaffected (10.7 ± 1.4%: 51/486; 12.9 ± 2.2%: 67/485). The effect, when present, of reducing O 2 concentration from 20 to 5% was beneficial for pig in vitro embryonic development. The responses are apparently dependent on firstly, the manner by which the embryonic cell cycle is activated and secondly, the derivation of the tissue prior to placement into culture, if the observed resilience of in v