Effect of Different Concentrations of Epidermal Growth Factor on Development of 2-cell Mouse Embryo in vitro

Objective To study the effects of different concentrations of epidermal growth factor on the development of two-cell mouse embryos in vitro.Methods Two-cell mouse embryos were cultured in the mKSOM media supplemented with EGF at different concentrations.Blastocyst rates,hatched blastocyst rates and the cell numbers of blastocysts were counted in 96 hours of cultured period.Results At 72 h of culture,blastocyst rates were 93.8%,92.4%,91.8% and 91.2%,and at 96 h of culture,hateched blastocyst rates were 61.1%,61.8%,63.0% and 60.1%,in mKSOM medium with 0.1,1,10 and 100 ng/ml EGF,respectively;the rates were all significantly higher than that of control at 72 h and 96 h of culture(79.9%,43.1%, P0.05);but there were no significant(P0.05) differences of hatched blastocyst rates among different concentration of EGF at 96 h of culture,the cell numbers of blastocyst at 96 h were 72.1±6.9 in control group and that in 0.1,1.0,10,100ng/ml EGF group were 73.1±13.4,73.8±7.0,74.3±12.2 and 77.6±8.2,respectively;there were no significant(P0.05) differences among them.Conclusion Within the range of the concentrations of 0.1~100ng/ml,EGF could increase blastocyst and hatched blastocyst rates of two-cell mouse embryos cultured in vitro.It has no effect on cell numbers of blastocyst and has no toxic effect on development of the embryos in vitro.