Abstract
To investigate the effect of EDTA on the in vitro development of blastomeres isolated from 2, 4, and 8-cell embryos(termed 1 /2, 1 /4 and 1 /8 blastomeres, respectively) of ICR strain mice, those were cultured in vitro in 35 mm culture dishes containing NaHCO$_3$-BMOC-3 medium supplemented with 10, 50, 100, or 500 $\mu$M of EDTA at 37$^{\circ}C$ for 72hrs. under the atmosphere of 5% $CO_2$and 95% air. EDTA supplementation of 10, 50, or 100 $\mu$M to medium significantly(P<0.01) increased blastocyst formation rate compared with controls in 1 /2(58.3, 63.7, and 61.3% vs 21.6%), 1 /4(54.7, 57.5 and 62.2% vs. 2L3%), and 1 /8 blastomeres(46.2, 48.7, and 57.7% vs. 19.1%). Whereas, it was significantly(P<0.01) decreased to 4.5, 2.3, and 2.0% for 1 /2, 1 /4 and 1 /8 blastomeres, respectively by the EDTA supplementation of 500 M Both the nuclear number(P<0.05) and diameter of blastocysts(P<0.01) developed from balstomeres were significantly affected by the origin of blastomeres. The nuclear number of blastocysrs developed from 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 blastomeres ranged 28.3i1.3, 24.18i1.2, and 19.84$\pm$0.9, respectively. And the diameter of those blastocysts was 87.2$\pm$1.1, 56.4$\pm$0.9, and 39.2$\geq$0.8 $\mu$M, respectively.
