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Inducing Pseudopregnancy in Female Mice Without the Need for Vasectomized Males Prior to Non-Surgical Embryo Transfer or Artificial Insemination
Published on: July 7, 2023
Superovulation with eCG alone or combined with the GnRH analogue buserelin improves transferable embryo production in
Adelina Lopez-Jara1, Manuela Garcia-Canovas1, Henar Gonzalez-Ramiro2
1Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, International Excellence Campus for Higher Education and Research "Campus Mare Nostrum" University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain; Institute for Biomedical Research of Murcia (IMIB-Pascual Parrilla), Murcia, Spain.
Abstract:
Efficient superovulation protocols are essential to improve efficiency and facilitate scheduling in porcine embryo transfer (ET) programs. Although hCG is widely used to synchronize ovulation following eCG-based superovulation, constraints in its availability have highlighted the need for hCG-free strategies. GnRH agonists could expand ovulation induction options within eCG-based superovulation protocols. In this study, multiparous weaned donor sows received eCG alone (1000 IU, 24 h post-weaning), eCG plus buserelin, a GnRH agonist (10 µg at estrus onset), or no hormonal treatment (control), and embryos were recovered on Day 6 after estrus to evaluate ovulatory response, embryo production efficiency, developmental synchrony, and blastocyst transcriptomic profiles. Both hormonal protocols independently increased ovulatory response by approximately 48% (~37 vs 25 corpora lutea; P < 0.001) and doubled transferable embryo production efficiency compared with controls (P < 0.001), without affecting pregnancy and fertilization rates, embryonic viability, total cell number, or apoptosis. Untreated sows showed the greatest developmental dispersion and a higher proportion of hatched blastocysts, whereas eCG-treated sows showed intermediate variability. The addition of buserelin further improved ovulation-embryo synchrony, with most embryos at the blastocyst stage and all viable embryos classified as transferable. Transcriptomic profiling identified a limited number of differentially expressed genes between treated and control embryos. In conclusion, both hCG-free treatments increased embryo production in weaned sows without adversely affecting the Day-6 blastocyst quality parameters assessed, whereas the addition of buserelin further improved embryo-stage synchrony at collection. Overall, both protocols represent practical hCG-free strategies for in vivo porcine embryo production under commercial conditions.
