Effect of nickel chloride and cadmium acetate on the development of preimplantation mouse embryos in vitro.

Preimplantation mouse embryos were used to investigate the toxic effect of nickel chloride and cadmium acetate on early embryo development in vitro. Embryos at the 2- and 4-8 cell stage were cultured in approximately 0.05 ml of mouse embryo culture medium (No. 16), overlaid with paraffin oil and incubated in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air for 48 h. NiCl2 . 6H2O was added to the culture medium at concentrations of 10-1000 microM, Cd(CH3COO)2 . 2H2O at concentrations of 10-50 microM. Morphological criteria were used to check embryonic development. Ten micromolars of nickel chloride affected adversely the development of Day 2 embryos (2-cell stage), whereas 300 microM was needed to affect Day 3 embryos (8-cell stage). Toxic effect of cadmium acetate on Day 2 embryos was observed at a concentration of 10 microM.