Effects of Retinoids on the In Vitro Development of Capra Hircus Embryos to Blastocysts in Two Different Culture Systems

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of retinol (RT) and retinoic acid (RA) on the in vitro development of pre‐implantation goat embryos cultured in potassium simplex optimized medium or synthetic oviduct fluid or cocultured in oviductal cells monolayer either in potassium simplex optimized medium or synthetic oviduct fluid. A total of 2407 cumulus‐oocyte complexes were aspirated from 2 to 6 mm ovarian follicles from slaughtered animals. Selected cumulus‐oocyte complexes were subjected to in vitro maturation in TCM 199 for 24 h at 39°C in an atmosphere of 5% (v/v) CO₂ in humidified air. In vitro fertilization was performed in modified defined medium. Eighteen hours after in vitro fertilization, cumulus cells were removed and presumptive zygotes were randomly distributed into experimental groups. In Experiment 1, presumptive zygotes were cultured in potassium simplex optimized medium, potassium simplex optimized medium + RT, potassium simplex optimized medium + retinoic acid, synthetic oviduct fluid, synthetic oviduct fluid + RT and synthetic oviduct fluid + RA at 39°C in a humidified atmosphere of 5% (v/v) CO₂, 5% (v/v) O₂ and 90% (v/v) N₂. In Experiment 2, presumptive zygotes were cocultured in potassium simplex optimized medium + oviductal cells monolayer, potassium simplex optimized medium + RT + oviductal cells monolayer, potassium simplex optimized medium + RA + oviductal cells monolayer, synthetic oviduct fluid + oviductal cells monolayer, synthetic oviduct fluid + RT + oviductal cells monolayer and synthetic oviduct fluid + RA + oviductal cells monolayer in an atmosphere of 5% (v/v) CO₂ in humidified air. In both experiments, media were partially changed on day 2 after in vitro fertilization and unfertilized oocytes were excluded from the experiment. Embryos were cultured or cocultured for 8 days. In Experiment 1, there was no effect of RT or RA supplementation on the proportion of oocytes that reached the morula or blastocyst stages. By contrast, Experiment 2 demonstrated that the addition of 0.28 μg/ml RT and 0.5 μm RA to the embryo culture media stimulated (p < 0.05) development to the morula and blastocyst stages under the coculture conditions tested. In conclusion, retinoids play an important role in pre‐implantation development of goat embryos and can be used to enhance in vitro embryo production.