Influence of growth factors in defined culture medium on in vitro development of mouse embryos

Two-cell mouse embryos were cultured in Ham's F-10 medium (Gibco, Grand Island, NY) supplemented with various concentrations of transferrin, insulin, epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, or fibroblast growth factor. Rates of development and the cell numbers per blastocyst were compared between embryos cultured in Ham's F-10 alone versus growth factor (GF) supplemented media. Rates of development in the presence of GF were inhibited significantly in some cases, and the cell numbers per blastocyst were identical in all groups. When compared with in vivo derived blastocysts, however, all in vitro cultured embryos had significantly less cells per embryo. These results suggest that GF supplementation of media for culture of early preimplantation embryos does not stimulate the rate of embryonic development in vitro.