Cytogenetic analysis of day-7 bovine embryos by cytophotometric DNA measurements

A Feulgen staining procedure that stains the DNA of individual fixed nuclei stoichiometrically was used to analyse cytophotometrically the incidence of total ploidy and mixoploidy in 28 day-7 bovine embryos that had been fixed after collection ('non-cultured' embryos). The influence of culture on the incidence of chromosome abnormalities was further studied in another group of 24 embryos ('cultured' embryos) by culturing them for 24 h in Whittingham's medium. Of the total 52 embryos studied, two appeared to be entirely abnormal: one embryo was completely haploid, whereas the other embryo was completely triploid. Individual hyperdiploid nuclei and hypodiploid nuclei were frequently observed in the otherwise diploid embryos. As haploid polar bodies can still be present in morulae and blastocysts (to a maximum of three), only embryos with more than three hypodiploid nuclei were considered as abnormal. Of the 'non-cultured' embryos, 33.3% had one or more hyperdiploid nuclei, whereas 51.9% had more than three hypodiploid nuclei. In this latter group, 35.7% of the embryos also had hyperdiploid nuclei. The results also showed that day-7 bovine embryos that are completely haploid, completely triploid or mixoploid cannot be detected only by examining their morphology. It is concluded that the incidence of, especially, mixoploidy in embryos can be better studied by measuring the DNA content of the individual nuclei of an embryo rather than by analysing chromosomes, as in the latter method only dividing cells can be analysed. The presence of hyperdiploid and hypodiploid nuclei may indicate the frequent occurrence of mitotic segregation failures during mitosis in bovine embryos.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)