In-vitro fertilization and culture of mouse embryos in vitro significantly retards the onset of insulin-like growth factor-II expression from the zygotic genome.

In this study, the effect of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and culture of mouse embryos in vitro on the normal expression of insulin-like growth factor-II (IFG-II) ligand and receptor was examined. The expression of IGF-II increased in a linear fashion at least up to the 8-cell stage of development. IGF-II expression in embryos collected fresh from the reproductive tract was significantly (P < 0.001) greater than in embryos fertilized in the reproductive tract and cultured in vitro (in-situ fertilized: ISF), and its expression was further reduced (P < 0.001) in IVF embryos at all development stages tested. The expression of IGF-II was significantly (P < 0.001) lower when embryos were cultured individually in 100 microl drops compared with culture in groups of 10 in 10 microl drops of medium. The addition of platelet activating factor to culture medium partially overcame this density-dependent decline of expression. Culture of ISF and IVF zygotes also caused the onset of new IGF-II mRNA transcription from the zygotic genome to be significantly (P < 0.001) retarded, until at least the 8-cell stage of development. This effect was greater (P < 0.05) for IVF than for ISF embryos. Neither IVF nor culture had any obvious effect on IFG-II/mannose-6-phosphate receptor (IGF-IIr) mRNA expression.