Normal Calves Produced After Transfer of Embryos Cultured in a Chemically Defined Medium Supplemented with Epidermal Growth Factor and Insulin-like Growth Factor I Following Ovum Pick Up and In Vitro Fertilization in Japanese Black Cows

Nobutada SAKAGAMI; Hidenobu UMEKI; Osamu NISHINO; Hiroko UCHIYAMA; Kyoko ICHIKAWA; Kazuhisa TAKESHITA; Etsushi KANEKO; Kiyoshi AKIYAMA; Shuji KOBAYASHI; Hiromichi TAMADA

doi:10.1262/jrd.11-050M

Original Article

Normal Calves Produced After Transfer of Embryos Cultured in a Chemically Defined Medium Supplemented with Epidermal Growth Factor and Insulin-like Growth Factor I Following Ovum Pick Up and In Vitro Fertilization in Japanese Black Cows

Nobutada SAKAGAMI ^†, Hidenobu UMEKI ^†, Osamu NISHINO ^†, Hiroko UCHIYAMA ^†, Kyoko ICHIKAWA ^†, Kazuhisa TAKESHITA ^†, Etsushi KANEKO ^†, Kiyoshi AKIYAMA ^†, Shuji KOBAYASHI ^†, Hiromichi TAMADA ^†

Author information

Nobutada SAKAGAMI ^†
Livestock Industry Technology Station, Kanagawa Agricultural Technology Center, Kanagawa 243-0417, Japan
Hidenobu UMEKI ^†
Oita Prefectural Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Center Livestock Research Institute, Ooita 878-0201, Japan
Osamu NISHINO ^†
Nara Prefectural Livestock Technology Center, Nara 633-1302, Japan
Hiroko UCHIYAMA ^†
Miyazaki Prefectural Livestock Research Institute, Miyazaki 889-4411, Japan
Kyoko ICHIKAWA ^†
Kochi Prefectural Livestock Research Institute, Kochi 789-1233, Japan
Kazuhisa TAKESHITA ^†
Yamaguchi Prefectural Livestock Experiment Station, Yamaguchi 759-2221, Japan
Etsushi KANEKO ^†
Livestock Industry Technology Station, Kanagawa Agricultural Technology Center, Kanagawa 243-0417, Japan
Kiyoshi AKIYAMA ^†
Livestock Industry Technology Station, Kanagawa Agricultural Technology Center, Kanagawa 243-0417, Japan
Shuji KOBAYASHI ^†
National Livestock Breeding Center, Fukushima 961-8511, Japan
Hiromichi TAMADA ^†
Department of Advanced Pathobiology, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka 598-8531, Japan
Author contributions

†These authors contributed equally: Nobutada SAKAGAMI, Hidenobu UMEKI, Osamu NISHINO, Hiroko UCHIYAMA, Kyoko ICHIKAWA, Kazuhisa TAKESHITA, Etsushi KANEKO, Kiyoshi AKIYAMA, Shuji KOBAYASHI, Hiromichi TAMADA

Keywords: Bovine embryo, Chemically defined medium, Epidermal growth factor (EGF), Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), Ovum pick up (OPU)

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2012 Volume 58 Issue 1 Pages 140-146

DOI https://doi.org/10.1262/jrd.11-050M

View "Advance Publication" version (November 11, 2011).

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine whether high concentrations of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and/or insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) would have a beneficial effect on bovine embryo development in vitro and to obtain normal calves by using an ovum pick up method and embryo culture in a chemically defined medium. When compared with controls, EGF (100 or 200 ng/ml) or IGF-I (50 or 100 ng/ml) significantly increased the rate of embryos that developed into blastocysts during an 8-day culture after the in vitro fertilization of oocytes obtained from ovaries from a slaughterhouse. IGF-I induced a dose-dependent increase in cell number in both the inner cell mass and the trophectoderm, whereas EGF stimulated proliferation only in the inner cell mass. A combination of EGF (100 ng/ml) and IGF-I (50 ng/ml) produced an additive effect, and embryos developed into blastocysts at a comparatively high rate (27.9%) compared with controls (12.0%). A similar rate of development was achieved using a combination of EGF and IGF-I in the culture of embryos following ovum pick up by ultrasound-guided transvaginal follicular aspiration and in vitro fertilization, and 5 blastocysts that developed after the culture were transferred into uteri; two embryos implanted, and normal calves were born. These results suggest that the combined use of EGF and IGF-I makes bovine embryo culture in a chemically defined medium a practical and useful procedure for producing blastocysts, and its application to embryo culture following ovum pick up and in vitro fertilization could be useful for producing normal calves.

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