The action of acetylcholine antagonists on preimplantation mouse embryos cultured in vitro

The effects of acetylcholine antagonists on development of the two-cell mouse embryos was studied. Etpenal-3 and etpenal-14 were shown to delay cleavage, affect cytokinesis, induce fusion of the blastomeres and arrest development at the stage of two-eight blastomeres with respect to the concentration used. Atropine, an M-cholinolytic, affects the early embryogenesis at a higher concentration than the cholinolytics with mixed effect. Acetylcholine does not prevent cleavage and compactization of the embryos and exerts a protective effect against the cholinolytics with mixed effect at the early developmental stages. The effect of atropine is weaker. The data obtained suggest the presence of structures sensitive to cholinolytics in the early mouse embryos and a possible involvement of acetylcholine in the early development of mammals.