Development of porcine embryos in vitro: effects of culture medium and donor age

We compared development of porcine embryos in three media and evaluated the effect of age of the donor on embryo development in vitro. In Exp. 1, embryos were collected from 35 postpubertal females on d 2 or 3 after onset of estrus. Embryos were cultured 144 h in Whitten's Medium (WM), North Carolina State University Medium-23 (NCSU-23), or Beltsville Embryo Culture Medium-3 (BECM-3) in 95% air:5% CO2 at 39 degrees C. More (P < 0.01) embryos that were initially one cell or two cells developed to blastocysts when cultured in NCSU-23 (56%) and BECM-3 (43%) rather than in WM (7.5%). More (P < 0.01) embryos that were four cells at recovery developed to blastocysts in NCSU-23 (97%) than in BECM-3 (69%) or WM (69%). Blastocysts that developed from four-cell embryos cultured in BECM-3 had more (P < 0.01) nuclei than blastocysts that developed from four-cell embryos in the other two media. In Exp. 2, ovarian responses, fertilization rates, and in vitro embryo development in NCSU-23 and BECM-3 were compared for postpubertal (approximately 170-d-old) gilts vs gilts given exogenous gonadotropins at 102 d of age. Ovulation rate (P < 0.01), number of eggs recovered, and number of eggs fertilized per gilt (P < 0.001) were greater in the older gilts. The percentage of eggs fertilized, the number of unfertilized eggs, and the number of unclassifiable eggs were similar (P > 0.10) for both age groups. More (P < 0.10) blastocysts developed from embryos recovered from 170-d-old than from 102-d-old gilts, and more (P < 0.05) blastocysts developed in NCSU-23 than in BECM-3. Zona thicknesses and number of nuclei per embryo were similar (P > 0.10) for both ages. We conclude that embryos from prepubertal gilts do not have the same in vitro developmental potential as those from cyclic gilts. However, superior development of embryos in NCSU-23 from both 102-d-old and 170-d-old gilts indicates that media composition did not differentially affect embryos produced by younger vs older gilts.