Relevance of Hepatocyte Growth Factor and Fibroblast Growth Factor on Mouse Preimplantation Embryo Development

Objective To explore the effect of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) on preimplantation embryo development of mouse.Methods Mated mice were killed by cervical dislocation to collect two pronucleous (2 PN) zygotes from oviduct of pregnant 1 d NMRI mice and were cultured to the hatching blastocyst stage and the number of embryo in different stages was recorded under an invert microscope. The cleavage rates of formed 2 PN zygotes were compared with blastocyst and hatching blastocyst stage in drops of T6 medium with or without HGF or FGF (0 ng/ml, 10 ng/ml, 20 ng/ml, 50 ng/ml, 1 000 ng/ml).Results HGF and FGF enriched embryo culture media promoted the development from 2 PN stage embryos to blastocyst. Adding 20 ng/ml of FGF or HGF to the culture medium significantly increased the percentage of 2PN embryos that developed into blastocysts (P<0.05), but culture of embryos in drops of T6 medium with HGF (20 ng/ml)had no improvement in in-vitro hatching.Conclusion Exogenous HGF and FGF at low concentrations promote in-vitro mouse blastocyst formation.