Effect of Estradiol-17β and Progesterone in Co-Culture with Uterine Epithelium Cells on Rat Embryo Development

Abstract

This experiment was designed to evaluate the ability of Estradiol-17β (E₂) and progesterone (P₄) to promote development of rat blastocysts. Eight-cell rat embryos were co-cultured for 5 days with rat uterine epithelium (UE) cells with inclusion of E₂ and/or P₄. Embryos were collected from mature Wistar-Imamichi rats. UE cells were recovered from the same washed with modified TCM199 (m 199FCS) and placed in 4-well Multi-dishes. UE cells of monolayers were developed to 70-80% confluence prior to initiation of the embryo culture. Embryos were recovered, selected and randomly placed in one of the four steroid hormone dose concentration media. They were evaluated every 24 h to determine their stage of development. More (p<0.05) embryos were developed to both hatched and post-hatched blastocysts in E₂ with a concentration of 3.5 × 10^-5, 10^-4 M and P₄ with a concentration of 3.5 × 10 ^-6, 10^-5,10^-4 M. The combination of E₂ (3.5 × 10^-5M) and P₄ (3.5 × 10^-6, 10^-5, 10^-4 M) also improved (p<0.05) both hatched and post-hatched blastocysts. These finding showed that the presence of ovarian steroid hormones in a primary culture of UE cells promotes in vitro development of post-blastocysts in rat embryos.