Quality control of culture media for in vitro fertilisation

The organisation of a control programme to evaluate the quality of culture media for human in vitro fertilisation is described. The development of mouse embryos to the blastocyst stage in vitro was used as control system. It is shown that it was possible to screen for embryo toxic chemicals in the media so that these can be avoided in the human culture. The influence of temporary pH shifts on the mouse embryo development and in vitro fertilisation in the mouse are mentioned. Exposure to low pH before fertilisation caused a drastic reduction of the development of mouse embryos. No clear association is found between pregnancy rate using in vitro fertilised human oocytes and mouse embryo development. The control system cannot be used to improve media for human in vitro fertilisation.