EFFECT OF PLASMA TREATMENT ON PREIMPLANTATION DEVELOPMENT AND THE EXPRESSION OF PLURIPOTENT PROTEINS OCT4 AND CDX2 IN MOUSE EMBRYO

Abstract

Although there is much evidence showing the applications of plasma laser in medical fields such as healing wounds and eventually treating cancers, there are still limited documents searching the relationship between plasma laser and embryos. Therefore, this experiment was carried out in order to determine how plasma treatment affects the preimplantation development of mouse embryos. This study was designed into a control group and three small experimental groups which were not only compared with the control group but also among them. In addition, plasma treatment was tested on the embryos made from intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). After 6h hours of ICSI, plasma was radiated to the zygotes by three ranges corresponding with 2.50-2.60A group, 2.80-2.89A group, and 2.90-3.00A group. As a result, the plasma-treated zygotes could grow to the blastocyst stage. However, when the experimental group measured with the control group, they showed a lower proportion (the highest percentage of the blastocyst in the experimental group was 23.3% while the control took 36.7%). Moreover, the number of cells in the experimental group was less than the control (21,14, and 16 cell numbers respectively followed by 2.50-2.60A group, 2.80-2.89A group, and 2.90-3.00A group - different with 70 cell number in the control). Finally, the result showed that plasma treatment has a negative effect on the preimplantation development of mouse embryos because of reducing successful proportion. The implications of this study may be used to promote further experiments in the future