Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of Serono Gamete Preparation Medium (GPM), which is used as the medium for human in vitro fertilization, as the fertilization medium for bovine oocytes matured in vitro. Oocytes were inseminated in GPM or GPM supplemented with 5mM caffeine and 10μg/ml heparin (GPM-CH). Brackett and Oliphant's (BO) medium supplemented with 5mM caffeine and 10μg/ml heparin (BO-CH) was used as a control medium. There were no differences in the rates of cleaved embryos and development to blastocysts between GPM-CH and BO-CH (72.0% vs 65.0%, 22.0% vs 25.0%, respectively). However, the rates were significantly low when oocytes were inseminated in GPM alone. It was found that there were no differences in the rates of development to blastocysts by using frozen spermatozoa derived from two different bulls when GPM-CH was used. These results indicated that GPM was successfully used as the fertilization medium for bovine oocytes.
