Effect of insulin-like growth factor-i and epidermal growth factor on in vitro embryo production in cattle

Abstract EN

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of supplementing in vitro maturation medium and culture medium with insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and a combination of them on the development of in vitro–matured and fertilized (IVM/IVF) bovine oocytes, as well as their developmental rate to cleavage and blastocyst stages.

For this purpose, 464 bovine ovaries were collected from Beni Suef abattoir; oocytes were aspirated and used for in vitro maturation and subsequent embryo development.

The current results revealed that supplementing maturation and culture media with a combination of IGF-I and EGF was the best treatment for improving rates of IVM, IVF, cleavage and blastocyst development.

Addition of IGF-I or EGF into maturation medium had insignificant effect on IVM rate but significantly enhanced subsequent embryonic development as compared to control.

Moreover, including IGF-I in culture medium significantly improved cleavage, morula and blastocyst rate as compared to EGFgroup.