Beneficial effects of taurine on mouse zygotes developing in protein-free culture medium

The objectives of this study were to determine if mouse zygotes from outbred mice can develop in simple culture medium in the absence of bovine serum albumin (BSA), and if taurine can be used as a medium supplement to improve development. Zygotes from 2 stocks of outbred mice (CD-1 and CF-1) were cultured in simple embryo culture medium (TE medium) lacking BSA and with or without taurine (24 mM), or in regular TE medium with BSA. The presence of BSA had little or no effect on development, but development to post-blastocyst endpoints was enhanced when CD-1 zygotes were cultured in medium containing taurine. In addition, when CD-1 blastocysts were transferred to pseudopregnant animals, embryos cultured in the presence of taurine developed into fetuses more often than those cultured in medium without taurine, and their weights were higher than those of embryos cultured in regular TE medium with BSA. These beneficial effects of taurine do not appear to be the nonspecific effects of a fixed nitrogen source, because the addition of glycine to BSA-free TE medium did not have similar beneficial effects. It was concluded that mouse zygotes from outbred mice do not require BSA for their preimplantation development in culture and that the presence of taurine in preimplantation culture medium is beneficial not only for preimplantation development of the zygotes, but also for their post-blastocyst development.