| dc.description.abstract | Bovine cloning is promising in basic research, reproductive cloning, and
therapeutic cloning; however, the success rate remains low. To overcome this,
improving laboratory techniques and applying epigenetic modifiers have been
investigated in cloned bovine embryos. In addition, embryo transportation has
been considered that can affect embryo survival and quality. Although the
transportation materials, namely plastic straw and microtube, were studied in
many species, there are few reports about cloned bovine embryos, and no paper
compares the efficiency of different transportation systems. Here we investigated
the effect of transportation method and transportation materials on
preimplantation development and pregnancy rate of cloned bovine embryos.
Briefly, each cloned bovine morula was stored in a plastic straw or a microtube
without hole or with two holes on its lid for two or four hours in the mini-incubator
and then continue to culture in 5% CO2 incubator until blastocyst formation. The
results showed that cloned bovine embryos in microtubes with two holes
maintained the high rate of hatching blastocysts and high average cell numbers
after two- and four-hour incubation in the transportable mini-incubator.
Furthermore, the pregnancy rate was higher for cloned bovine embryos stored in
microtubes with two holes than the plastic straws’ after embryo transfer. In
conclusion, transporting cloned bovine embryos in microtube with two holes could
enhance the preimplantation development and pregnancy rate after embryo
transfer. | en_US |
