Development of in vitro matured and fertilized bovine embryos cocultured with bovine oviductal epithelial cells obtained from oviducts ipsilateral to cystic follicles

The present experiment was conducted to clarify the effect of bovine oviductal epithelial cells (BOEC) collected from oviducts ipsilateral to cystic follicles (CFs) using an in vitro coculture system on the development of in vitro matured/fertilized (IVM/IVF) bovine embryos. In the first comparison, the effect of the presence of CF on the development of the embryos cocultured with BOEC derived from the cows with CF (n=18) and corpus hemorrhagicum (CH, n=10) was examined. In the second comparison, the effect of the type of cyst [progesterone (P4)-dominant; n=9, estradiol-17β (E2)-dominant; n=5] on the development of the embryos cocultured with BOEC derived from the cystic cows was examined. No difference was observed between CF and CH (control) groups in the mean developmental rates of embryos developed to ≥2-cell (86.3% vs. 86.4%), 8–16 cells (53.0% vs. 56.2%), blastocyst (24.2% vs. 24.8%) and hatched blastocyst (12.0% vs. 14.6%). However, the blastocyst production rate was significantly different (P<0.05) between the P4-dominant (19.8%) and E2-dominant (32.6%) groups. The rate of development from cleavage stage embryo to blastocyst was significantly different between P4-dominant (22.9%) and E2-dominant (37.9%) groups. Moreover, the blastocyst rate from 8–16 cells of E2-dominant group (61.6%) was significantly higher than that of P4-dominant one (39.5%). These results indicate that the effects of BOEC collected from oviduct ipsilateral to CFs on embryo development are variable, and the variability is closely associated with the steroid hormone profiles of the follicular fluid.