Follicular fluid and cumulus cells synergistically improve mouse early embryo development in vitro.

The development of preimplantation mammalian embryos in vitro is less than optimal. Follicular fluid and cumulus cells have both been used independently, to improve preimplantation embryo quality in culture. This study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of a cumulus cell monolayer in human follicular fluid on mouse early embryo development in vitro. One-cell embryos were obtained from NMRI mice after superovulation with eCG and hCG. Cumulus cells were prepared from mouse egg-cumulus mass. These cells were separated from red blood cells using a Percoll gradient. Follicular fluid was collected from patients undergoing an IVF program during oocyte pick-up. The cumulus cell monolayer was prepared in follicular fluid (FC) and Ham's F10 (HC). Mouse one-cell embryos were cultured in FC, HC, Ham's F10 (HF) and follicular fluid (FF) for 120 h. Only 10.5% of embryos passed the two-cell block in HF. However, the proportions of embryos passing the two-cell block were 23.1%, 21.4% and 68.5% in FF, HC, and FC treatments, respectively; which were significantly different from HF (p<0.05). The differences between FC and the two other treatments were also significant (p<0.001). In FC, 33.7% of one-cell embryos continued to grow to the blastocyst stage whereas only 2.1% and 1.9% of one-cell embryos in FF and HC reached this stage and no embryos developed to blastocyst in HF. The proportion of blastocysts in FC was significantly higher than all other treatments (p<0.001). It can be concluded that follicular fluid and cumulus cells in monolayer form synergistically improve the early embryo culture condition.