The influence of medium on viability of bovine morulae produced in vitro after their biopsy

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of two different media on the viability of in vitro produced biopsied bovine morulae. Bovine morulae were produced in vitro, then biopsied and cultured in the Ham's F10 and IVM media. Cultured and control morulae were stained with Hoechst 33342 and propidium iodide. Morulae were classified morphologically for excellent, good and degenerated quality. 42.86% of biopsied morulae cultured in the Ham's F10 medium and only 11.11% (only one) of these embryos cultured in the IVM were of excellent quality. Embryos of good quality were about 2 times less numerous in Ham's F10 medium (28.57%) than in IVM medium (55.5%) (P < or = 0.05). 28.57% of biopsied morulae cultured in Ham's F10 medium and 33.33% of these embryos cultured in the IVM degenerated (P > or = 0.05). The media had no significant influence on the number of total and viable blastomeres of morulae cultured in vitro after biopsy (P > or = 0.05). But the quantity of restored (excellent and good quality) embryos was higher when they were cultured after biopsy in Ham's F10 medium than in IVM. These statistically significant results (P < or = 0.05) show that the Ham's F10 medium is better for the restoring of biopsied bovine embryos produced in vitro than IVM.