The oxidation and incorportion of [U-¹⁴C] glucose were examined in preimplantation rat embryos. An increasing capacity for incorporation and oxidation of glucose after the 1-cell stage was observed and the oxidative turnover of this substrate at the blastocyst stage was ten times more than that at the 1-cell stage. To evaluate how glucose is utilized for the synthesis of embryo lipids, 2-cell embryos and blastocysts were cultured for 5 h in medium containing [U-¹⁴C] glucose, and total lipids extracted from the embryo were separated into various neutral lipids and phospholipids by thin layer chromatography and radioactivities of these lipid fractions were measured. Most of the radioactivity was recovered in triacylglycerols in both stages, and radioactivities were also found in other neutral lipids and phospholipids. These results indicate that [U-¹⁴C] glucose was certainly utilized for oxidation and the synthesis of various lipids in embyros at the preimplamtation stage.

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