Effect of Glucose and Sodium Phosphate on In Vitro Development of Porcine Embryos

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of glucose and sodium phosphate on in vitro development of porcine oocytes matured and fertilized in vitro. When the culture medium was supplemented with various concentrations of glucose, the higher proportions (23 and 26%) of oocytes developed to morular or blastocyst stages were at the concentrations of 2.78 and 5.56 mM than 0 (9%; P<0.05) and 11.12 mM (18%). In experiment to evaluate effect of sodium phosphate during in vitro development of porcine oocytes, a significantly (P<0.05) higher proportions of embryos developed to morular or blastocyst stages was obtained with sodium phosphateof 0.28 (25%) and 0.53 (27％) mM than 0 (15%), 1.05 (19%) and 2.10 (10%) mM. On the other hand, when oocytes were cultured in medium with (0.53 mM) sodium phosphate, the proportions of developed embryos were significantly (P<0.05) higher in medium without (29%) that than with (14%) 5.56 mM glucose. However, a higher proportion of embryos developed to morular or blastocyst stages were obtained in medium with (23%) that than without (8%) glucose (P<0.05). The minimum essential medium (MEM) added to the culture medium were higher regardless of presence of sodium phosphate and glucose on the development of embryos. Although sodium phosphate and glucose could support morular and blastocyst development to a limited extend (10∼24%), significantly higher proportion (36%) at morular or blastocyst stages was obtained by MEM adding in the medium with sodium phosphate and glucose. These results suggest that the early development of in vitro fertilized porcine oocytes can be maintained efficiently by glucose and sodium phosphate when they were cultured in medium with MEM.