• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 1991

This stduy was carried out in order to investigate the effects of cryoprotective concentration and equilibration time on survival rate of ultrarapidly frozen in vitro fertilized bovine embryos. In vitro fertilized bovine embryos, following dehydration by cryoprotective agents and sucorese were directly plunged into liquid nitrogen and thawed in 38$^{\circ}C$ water. Survival rate was defined by development rate to the morula and blaqstocyst stage after in vitro culture of by FDA test. The results are summarized as follows : 1. The survival rates of in vitro fertilized bovine embryos after ultrarapid frozen-thawing in the freezing medium of 0.25M sucroese added 2.0M, 2.5M, 3.0M, 3.5M, 4.0M glycerol were 75.0%, 72.0%, 67.6%, 44.8% and 18.3% respectively. 2. The survival rates of in vitro fertilized bovine embryos after ultrarapid frozen-thawing in the freezing medium of 0.25M sucrose added 2.0M, 2.5M, 3.0M, 3.5M, 4.0M DMSO were 64.0%, 66.7%, 70.8%, 52.7% and 18.6, respectively. 3. The survival rates of in vitro fertilized bovine embryos after ultrarapid frozen-thawing in the freezing medium of 0.25M sucrose added 2.0M, 2.5M, 3.0M, 3.5M, 4.0M propanediol were 68.4%, 64.9%, 63.2%, 62.2% and 34.7%, respectively. 4. The survival rates of in vitro fertilized bovine embryos after ultrarapid frozen-thawing in the freezing medium of 2.50M glycerol added 0.1M, 0.25M, 0.5M, 0.75M, sucrose were 60.5%, 72.2%, 70.1% and 54.9%, respectively. The survival rate of in vitro fertilized embryos after ultrarapid frozen-thawing in the freezing medium of 2.5M glycerol added 0.25M sucrose were higher than concentration of 0.10M, 0.50M and 0.75M sucrose. 5. The equilibration time on the survival rate of in vitro fertilized bovine embryos was attained after short period of time(2.5~5min.) in the freezing medium added 0.25M sucrose and 3.0M DMSO higher than long period time(1~20min.).

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.131-137
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• 1997

This study was carried out to investigate the in vivo development rates of vitrified-thawed mouse expanding, hatching and hatched blastoc ysts(BL). In vitro fertilization produced blastocysts were vitrified in EFS40(40% ethylene glycol, 30% Ficoll and 0.3 M sucrose in phosphate buffer saline containing 10% FBS). Expanding a and hatching blastocysts were equilibrated in 20% ethylene glyco](EG) for 5 min. before exposure to EFS40 at 25°C for 1 min., they were then vitrified in liquid nitrogen. Hatched blastocysts which cultured in m-CR1 medium supple mented 0.4% bovine serum albumin on day 5. were equilibrated in 10% EG for 5 min. and then vitrified in EFS40 for 30 sec. After thawing, re-expanding blastocysts were transferred to recipients(3 day of pseudopregnant) on one or both uterine horns(6-8 embryos per a horn). Preg¬n nancy rates of recipients and implantation were a assccessed by autopsy on 15 gestation. The res¬u ults obtained in these experiments were summar¬1 ized as follows; 1) The pregnancy and live fetus rates, for vitrified expanding BL(77.8 and 25.0%) and hatching BL(77.8 and 26.4%)n vitro were not significantly difference in those of control BL (66.7 and 42.9%: 83.3 and 40.4%), respectively, 2) in vitro development of vitrified hatched BL was 34.0%. and 3) in vivo developmental rate of vitrified hatched BL was only 33.3%. These results suggested that proposed rapid vitrification p procedures used EFS40 cryoprotectant can be effectively performed in mouse expanding Ihatching blastocysts and that mouse blastocysts a after being hatched from zona pellucida can be successfully cryopreserved.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.232-238
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• 2020

This study used adult wistar-based rats to observe the sexual cycle as a morphological characteristic of vaginal epithelial cells by vaginal smearing, and investigated the fetal number through mating with male rats of the same strain. The target animal was a 12 to 13-week-old Wistar-based mature unlighted rat (weight 220 g to 240 g), room temperature 23 ± 2℃, 14 hours artificial lighting (05:00 to 19:00 hours), 10 hours Adapted individuals were used for rearing for at least 2 weeks under the conditions of the darkroom (19:00 to 05:00). The feed was managed for free feeding of pellet feed for animals and water. The vaginal smearing method was used for the experiments by observing the sexual cycle every morning and confirming that the normal sexual cycle of 4 or 5 days was repeated at least 2 cycles or more. As a result, the proestrus was found to have few red blood cells, the cells and nuclei were rather large and round, and many nucleated cells were identified. In the case of the estrus, the cells were large and the nuclei were not stained, and most of the keratinocytes were found. In addition, in the metestrus and diestrus, there were many white blood cells, and it was confirmed that nucleated epithelial cells and keratinocytes were significantly reduced. The pregnancy period was 21 ± 1.8 days, and the number of live births per delivery was 11.9 on average. The number of fetuses on the 8th and 10th days of pregnancy were 15.2 ± 0.4 and 15.4 ± 0.3, respectively. On the contrary, the number of fetuses on the 12th day of pregnancy was 12.9 ± 0.6, which was significantly (p < 0.05) decreased compared to the 10th day of pregnancy, and the number of fetuses was similar until delivery. As a result of investigating the change of body weight according to the birth weight and growth stage after delivery, the birth weight of female and male was 9.2 ± 2.0 g and 9.8 ± 2.5 g, respectively. After that, until the 16th day, the female and the male showed similarly moderate weight gain, and then showed a rapid weight gain until the 21st day of lactation. With reference to the results of this study, it is expected to be used as basic data for determining the mating time of rodents and controlling pregnancy and fetal number.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 1993

A new technique was established to maximize the numbers of follicular oocytes recovered from the ovaries obtained at the slaughter house. And their further developmental capacity was demonstrated. There recovery techniques were used; aspiration (ASP, control), slicing (SLC) and slicing combining aspiration (ASP+SLC). Recovered oocytes were cultured in TCM 199+15% FCS+gonadotrophins in an atmosphere of 5% CO$_2$ in air at 39$^{\circ}C$ for 24 h. The nuclear maturation was detemined with chromo-some configuration by rapid staining. And cytoplasmic maturation was examined by the formation of female pronuclei with parthenogenetic activation of the matured oocyte after 18 h of co-culture with granulosa cell monolayer. Total 1,641 bovine follicular oocytes recovered from 245 ovaries. The number of oocytcs per ovary was 1.87 in ASP, 11.05 in SLC and 7.88 in ASP+SLC, respectively. SLC would yield 5.9 folds increase, compared with ASP. The rate of maturation were 92.9% in ASP, 79.1% in SLC and 71.7% in ASP+SLC, respectively. Although the maturation rate in ASP was the highest, metaphase II oocytes per ovary in SLC was 5 times higher than that of ASP. The rates of pronuclei formation upon ethanol activation were 75% in ASP, 67% in SLC and 62.5% in ASP+SLC, respectively. The results demonstrate that it should be possible to maximize the number of the follicular oocyte from the ovary for mass production of bovine embryos. Thus the established technique may provide efficient supply of bovine embryos for biochemical and molecular study of early bovine embryos.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.187-194
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• 1998

In order to determine suitable conditions for rapid freezing of porcine embryos, the kind and concentration of cryoprotectants, sucrose concentrations, equilibration time and thawing temperature in freezing medium were examined in relation to the survival of frozen-thawed oocyte and embryos. The results obtained are as follows : 1. The suitable concentrations of cryoprotoctant in the freezing medium which consisted of TCM-199+20% FCS were 1.5M for glycerol, 2.0M for DMSO, 2.5M for ethylene glycol, and 2.0M for propanediol. The sucrose concentration of 0.25M in the medium was found to optimal because the survival rate was markedly higher at this concentration when compared to the others. The survival rate was relatively high when the frozen embryos were thawed at 30$^{\circ}C$ in the freezing medium containing 2.5M cryoprotectants. The equilibration periods of 2.0 and 5.0 minutes revealed the higher survival in the media containing 1.5 or 2.1M glycerol when compared to 10 and 15 minutes. 2. The fertilization rates of frozen-thawed follicular oocytes which matured in vitro for 1, 12, 24 and 48 hours were 6.7~26.7% depending on the maturation time, and the rates were relatively high for those matured for a short period of time. The survival rates of frozen-thawed oocytes which matured in vitro for certain periods and fertilized were 10.0~30.0% depending on the maturation time.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 1997

The objective of this study was to investigate the in vitro / in vivo embryonic development after vitrification of mouse zygotes and the chrom osomal normality of delivered live young after embryo transfer. Mouse IVF zygotes were cryopreserved by vitrification using vitrification solution, EFS40 (40% ethylene glyc이, 30% Ficoll a and 0.3 M sucrose in phosphate buffer saline c containing 10% FBS ) . After mouse zygotes were exposed to EFS40 at 25"C for 30 sec., they were immediately plunged into LN$_2$. Vitrified thawed mouse zygotes were cultured upto bIastocysts in M16 for 4 days. The rates of in vitro development were 71.5% under this condition. Cultured blastocysts were transferred to recipients (3 day of pseudopregnant) on one or both uterus horns (6-8 embryos per a uterus horn). And all recipients were allowed to produce litters. The results obtained in these experiments were summarized as follows: The pregnancy rates and in vivo survival rates, live fetus rates, for vitrified zygotes (80.0, 39.6%) were not significantly difference in those of control zygotes (77.8%, 50.0%). Also, all of live-born young mice were chromosomally normal (n=40). This results suggested that proposed rapid vitrification procedures can be effectively use in 1-cell mouse zygotes cryopreservation.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.225-230
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• 2000

This study was designed to investigate effect of cryoprotectant kinds and cell stages on the viability of bovine embryos cryopreserved by vitrification. The oocytes were collected from ovarian follicles of Korean native cows. The follicular oocytes were cultured in TCM-199 medium containing hormone and 10%(v/v) FCS for 24~48hrs in a incubator with 5% $CO_2$, in air at 38.5$^{\circ}C$ and then matured oocytes were again cultured for 7~10 hrs with spermatozoa capacitated by preincubation. The vitrification solutions of EFS and EDS were consisted of 40%(v/v) ethylene glycol, 18%(v/v) Ficoll and 0.3M sucrose, and 20%(v/v) ethylene glycol, 16.5%(v/v) DMSO and 0.5M sucrose in TCM-199 medium supplemented with 10% FCS, respectively. The embryos were exposed to EFS or EDS at $25^{\circ}C$ and loaded into OPP straw for 30 sec. The plug end of each straws was heat-sealed and straws was slowly immersed into liquid nitrogen(L$N_2$). The results obtained were summarized as follows : 1 . The rates of cleavage and hatching of embryos frozen with vitrification, rapid and slow freezing methods were 67.5%, 27.5% and 42.5%, 20.0% and 52.5%, 25.0%, respectively And rates of cleavage and hatching of embryos frozen with vitrification method were significantly(p<0.05) higher than those in other methods, and the rates were lower than those in control group(82.5% and 37.5%). 2. The rates of cleavage and hatching of embryos were significantly(p<0.05) different between EFS(47.5% and 22.5%) and EPS(52.5% and 27.5%), and the rates were lower than those in control group(82.5% and 37.5%). 3. After vitrification freezing of bovine embryos at zygote, 2 cell, 8 cell, morulae and blastocyst stage, the rate of cleavage and hatching were 25.0% and 15.0%, 32.5% and 20.0%, 37.5% and 20.0%, 52.5%, 27.5%, 47.5% and 25.0%, respectively. And developmental rates to the expended blastocyst stage of embryos frozen at zygote stage was significantly(p<0.05) lower rather than those in 2, 8-cell and morulae stage.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2019

This study was conducted to find out the effect that ${\kappa}-Carrageenan$ has on the properties of dog sperm when it was added to the cryoprotectant. Extender basically was contained 1.21 g Trizma base, 0.67 g citric acid, 0.4 g glucose, 0.03 g penicillin G, 0.05 g streptomycin sulfate. Extender1 was added with 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, and 0.5% carrageenan, while extender2 was supplemented with glycerol. After freezing-thawing, the motility, viability, acrosome integrity, apoptosis, and ROS (reactive oxygen specifications) of sperm were measured to analyze the effects of the supplementation of carrageenan. Total Motile (TM), Rapid Progressive Motile (RPM), Medium Progressive Motile (MPM), and Immotile were measured through the CASA system after thawing in 37 degree water. Extender with 0.2% ${\kappa}-carrageenan$ ($64.26{\pm}0.49$) was significantly higher than control ($40.24{\pm}8.27$) (p < 0.05). RPMs of extender with 0.1%, 0.2% ${\kappa}-carrageenan$ ($57.64{\pm}6.34$, $56.47{\pm}1.35$) were significantly higher than the other groups (p < 0.05). Acrosome integrity was measured by dyeing to PSA-FITC with an epifluorescence microscope. Normal acrosome ratio of extender with 0.5% ${\kappa}-carrageenan$ ($61{\pm}8.03$) was higher than the other groups (p < 0.05). Apoptosis was measured with a FACSCalibur flow cytometer using FITC (FITC Annexin V Apoptosis Detection Kit). Treated groups of ${\kappa}-carrageenan$ of 0.1% ($0.81{\pm}0.05$), 0.2% ($0.85{\pm}0.05$) were significantly higer (p < 0.05) than control. Modified SYBR/PI staining was used for determination of viability and DCF staining was used for evaluation of ROS. Viability and ROS were not significantly different from other groups. In conclusion, adding a certain concentration of carrageenan to the extender of cryopreservation, carrageenan contributes to the improvement of the sperm motility, acrosome integrity and prevention of apoptosis.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.189-196
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• 1998

Several lines of evidence indicate that some neuropeptides classically associated hypothalamus have been found in pituitary gland, suggesting the existence of local regulation of pituitary function. Among the hypothalamic releasing hormones, genes for TRH and GnRH are expressed in the rat anterior pituitary gland. The present study was carried out to investigate the expression of the GHRH gene in rat anterior pituitary and the pituitary-derived cell lines. The presence of GHRH transcripts in pituitary tissue was shown by 3'rapid amplification of cDNA end (3'-RACE) analysis. In reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) study, GHRH cDNA fragments were amplified from two pituitary-derived cell lines, $\alpha$T3 cells originated from mouse gonadotrope and GH3 cells from rat somatolactotrope. Immunoreactive GHRH was detected in large and medium-sized pituitary cells by immunocytochemistry. Significant amounts of GHRH-like molecules were found in the GH3 cell extracts. In RNase protection assay, the level of pituitary GHRH mRNA was augmented by ovariectomy. These results demonstrate that GHRH gene is expressed in the rat gonadotropes and somatotropes, and suggest that the pituitary GHRH could be participated in the paracrine and/or autocrine regulation of cell proliferation, as well as promoting growth hormone secretion.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2006

Progesterone(P4) is an important intermediate in the synthesis of androgens and estrogens. Furthermore, P4 itself plays a crucial role in ovulation, atresia and luteinization, and is essential for the continuation of early pregnancy in all mammalian species. In spite of the hormone's physiological importance, the exact action mechanism(s) of P4 in mammalian ovary has not been fully understood yet. In this context, a decades-long controversy regarding the identity of receptors that mediate non-genomic, transcription-independent cellular responses to P4 is presently attracting huge scientific interests. P4 may exert its action in mammalian ovary by several ways: 1) the well-documented genomic pathway, involving hormone binding to so-called classic cytosolic receptor(PGR) and subsequent modulation of gene expression by the ligand-receptor complex as transcription factor. 2) pathways are operating that do not act on the genome, therefore refered to as non-genomic actions. The prominent characteristics of the non-genomic P4 actions are: (i) rapid, (ii) insensitive to transcription inhibitors, (iii) transduced by membrane associated molecules. In particular, the non-genomic P4 actions could be mediated by: (a) classic genomic P4 receptor(PGR) that localizes at or near the plasma membrane, (b) a family of membrane progestin receptors(MPR $\alpha$, MPR $\beta$ and MPR $\gamma$), (c) progesterone receptor membrane component I(PGRMC1), and (d) a membrane complex composed of serpine I mRNA binding protein(SERBP1). The present review summarized these rapid signaling pathways of P4 in the mammalian ovary.