Recent studies comparing bovine oocyte maturation, fertilization and embryo culturein vivo
andin vitro have demonstrated that the origin of the oocyte is the main factor affecting
blastocyst yield, while the post-fertilization culture environment is critical in determining
blastocyst quality, measured in terms of cryotolerance and relative transcript abundance,
irrespective of the origin of the oocyte. Production of embryosin vitro, particularly when using
an extended period of in-vitro culture, may predispose the embryo to phenomena such as …