Abstract
The present study was conducted to examine the effect of repetitive electrical pulses applied to recipient ooplasts and donor blastomeres on the development of nuclear transferred bovine embryos. A series of repetitive electrical pulses at 30 min. intervals improved the rates of activated oocytes and the pronuclear formation in oocytes matured in vitro. After fusion with a donor nucleus, more than 20% of the reconstituted embryos developed to the blastocyst stage in vitro. Additional electrical pulses before fusion to the donor blastomeres and recipient ooplasts significantly enhanced the percentage of reconstituted embryos developing to blastocysts (38%). These results suggest that a series of repetitive electrical pulses can clearly induce suitable oocyte activation and enhance the development of nuclear transferred bovine embryos.
