In vitro production of porcine embryos with use of chemically semi-defined culture media system

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a semi-defined culture media system developed in our laboratory, named Pigs Media System (PMS) on the in vitro production of porcine embryos. In a first assay, the cummulus-oocytes complexes (COCs) were matured, fertilized and cultured for embryo development in PMS supplemented with bovine serum albumin (BSA), and in North Carolina State University-23 (NCSU-23) supplemented with fluid follicular, until blastocysts evaluation. In the assay 2, maturation and culture were performed in PMS using BSA or polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement (PMS-BSA/BSA, PMS-BSA/PVA, PMS-PVA/PVA, PMS-PVA/BSA). The PMS had a positive effect on the total cell number (58.04) and the decrease of the total lipids (49.4%) regarding the NCSU-23 medium (37.98 and 59.2% respectively; p <0.05). The percentage of monospermic fertilization was significantly lower (42.3%; p <0.05) when oocytes were matured with PMS-BSA than in PMS-PVA (52.6%). The supplementation of BSA in the PMS for embryo culture, increased the blastocyst development, the cell number of blastocysts and decreased the content of total lipids (36.8%, 46.9 and 49.6% respectively; p <0.05), in comparison with the supplementation of PVA in the PMS for embryo culture. These results suggest that the semi-defined culture media system developed by the National Genetic Resources Center (CNRG), have proved favorable effects on the total cell number and the decrease of total lipids of porcine blastocysts in vitro produced.