Optimization of In Vitro Murine Embryo Culture Condition based on Commercial M16 Media

In vitro culture of murine embryos is an important step for in vitro production systems including in vitro fertilization and generations of genetically engineered mice. M16 is widely used commercialized culture media for the murine embryos. Compared to other media such as potassium simplex optimization medium, commercial M16 (Sigma) media lacks of amino acid, glutamine and antibiotics. In the present study, we optimized M16 based embryo culture system using commercialized antibiotics-glutamine or amino acids supplements. In vivo derived murine zygote were M16 media were supplemented with commercial Penicillin-Streptomycin-Glutamine solution (PSG; Gibco) or MEM Non-Essential Amino Acids solution (NEAA; Gibco) as experimental design. Addition of PSG did not improved cleavage and blastocyst rates. On the other hand, cleavage rate is not different between control and NEAA treated group, however, blastocyst formation is significantly (P<0.05) improved in NEAA treated group. Developmental competence between PSG and NEAA treated groups were also compared. Between two groups, cleavage rate was similar. However, blastocyst formation rate is significantly improved in NEAA treated group. Taken together, beneficial effect of NEAA on murine embryos development was confirmed. Effect of antibiotics and glutamine addition to M16 media is still not clear in the study.