Purification of Embryogenesis Stimulating Activity from Bovine Oviduct Epithelial Cell Conditioned Medium and Its Effect on the Development of Bovine Embryos

소 난관상피세포 배양액 유래 배발육촉진인자의 정제와 소 수정란 체외배양시 발육에 미치는 영향

The embryogenesis stimulating activity(ESA) had been shown in co-culture of embryos with bovine oviduct epithelial cell(BOEC) and culture in BOEG-conditioned medium. The present study was undertaken to purify and quantify the embryotropic proteins and to determine the optimum concentration of the embryotropic protein for the proper development of embryos. In BOEC-conditioned medium, five major bands of proteins were detected(66, 53, 40, 32 and 24 kDa) by SDS-PAGE. From these proteins, 288pg of protein that had a 32kDa molecular weight was purified by gel filtration column and perfusion chromatography ion-exchange column. When purified protein was supplemented to the in vitro culture media at various concentrations in protein-free media, 2.5$\mu$g /ml supplement group showed significantly higher rates of embryo development into morula /blastocyst stages than other groups(p<0.05). In conclusion, we purified 32kDa protein from BOEC-conditioned medium and this protein showed optimum embryogenesis stimulating effect at 2.5$\mu$g /ml.