Bovine serum: An alternative to rat serum as a culture medium for the rat whole embryo culture.

The results reported here demonstrate the ability of supplemented bovine serum to serve as a culture medium for rat whole embryos. After 48 hours' culture in bovine serum supplemented with Tyrode's buffer and methionine, 9.5-day-old rat embryos were at a stage of development comparable with that of embryos cultivated in homologous serum, although some deficiency in the formation of haemoglobin in embryonic blood cells could be observed. However, supplementation of the culture medium with haemoglobin overcame this deficiency. The procedure used for preparing the culture medium is described in detail and some advantages of bovine serum are discussed.