In Vitro Development of in Vivo and in Vitro Fertilized Porcine Zygotes.

To identify an in vitro culture procedure which can be used to assess porcine in vitro fertilized embryos, three culture systems were examined. A total of 103 in vivo fertilized zygotes were co-cultured in modified BMOC-3 medium with granulosa cells, or in modified BMOC-2 with oviduct cells, and 35 were cultured in Whitten's medium supplemented with 1.5% BSA. After 8 days in culture, 66.0 and 73.6% of the co-cultured zygotes, and 51.4% of the zygotes cultured in the modified Whitten's medium developed to blastocyst stage. In contrast, only 20.5% (18/88) and 1.4% (9/627) of in vitro fertilized zygotes derived from in vivo and in vitro matured oocytes developed to blastocysts in the co-culture with modified BMOC-3 and granulosa cells. It is concluded that the culture systems examined are competent to support development of porcine zygotes to blastocysts and evaluate in vitro fertilized porcine embryos.