[Improvement of mouse early embryo development in vitro by co-culture with human oviductal epithelial cells in serum-free medium].

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of human oviductal epithelial cells on early mouse embryonic cleavage and growth in vitro. METHODS: Ninety 2-cell mouse embryos were co-cultured with human oviductal epithelial cells in DMEM/Ham's F12 + 0.3% bovine serum albumin(BSA) + estradiol (E2) and ninety embryos cultured in DMEM/F12 + 0.3% BSA + E2 alone as control. RESULTS: Among the embryos co-cultured with oviductal epithelial cells, 82% developed to the morulae stage, 77% cavitated to blastocysts with 63% hatching, as compared with 45% to morulae stage, 13% to blastocysts and none hatching in the controls. Co-cultured embryos cleaved significantly faster than control and showed no or less fragmentation than those in the control. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that human oviductal epithelial cells can support early embryonic development and yield a reasonable number of embryos with good quality up to the blastocyst stage.