Abstract
Purpose: A mouse model was used to evaluate the consequences of partial cytoplasm removal, which mimics the consequence of human early embryo fragmentation, at the one-cell stage on embryonic development to the morula and blastocyst stages.
Results: Opening the zona pellucida at the zygote stage has no detrimental effect on the number of differentiated or total cells at morulalblastocyst stage. However, reduced cytoplasm significantly affects the number of inner cell mass cells, 21.7 (10% cytoplasm removed) vs 27.6 (control) and 15.1 (20% cytoplasm removed) vs 24.7 (control).
Conclusions: The contribution of cytoplasm of maternal origin is critical to early embryonic development.
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Xu, K., Rosenwaks, Z. The importance of cytoplasm in early embryonic development. J Assist Reprod Genet 13, 251–253 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02065945
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02065945