Abstract—Arresting in a certain step of development, like two-cell stage could be one of the reasons of infertility. In this study, we evaluate the effects of ethanol on growth and development of mouse two-cell arrested embryos. In this xperimental study 4-6 week-old female mice were coupled with males following superovulation by intraperitoneal injection of pregnant mere serum gonadotropin (PMSG). Positive vaginal plug mice were killed 48 hours after human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) injection. Two-cell embryos were transferred to culture medium, and divided in three groups, 1(control 1), 2 (control 2) and 3 (experimental). Second and third groups were exposed to 4ºC for 24 hours in order to arrest the two-cell embryos. Group 2 were incubated immediately in 38ºC, while group 3 were exposed to 0.1% ethanol for five minutes and group 1 were incubated without any exposure to low temperature. The developmental rate of embryos exposed to low temperature (4ºC) were significantly decreased and retarded (P=0.001). There was no significant difference in the mean percent of cleavage rate between groups, but the mean percent of degenerated embryos (P=0.045), morula formation (P=0.005), blastocyst formation (P=0.014) and hatched blastocyst (P=0.001) in 120 h study, were significantly different between groups. The effect of 0.1% ethanol on arrested two-cell embryos can significantly enhance the mean percent of morula formation and development of blastocysts and hatching blastocysts comparing to 2^nd control group, without any significant effect on cleavage rate.

Index Terms—Block, ethanol, mouse, two-cell embryo

Mohammad Reza Darabi is with Department of Anatomy, Arak University of Medical Science, Arak, Iran (Email, m_darabi36@arakmu.ac.ir)
Abdolhossein Shiravi and Azindokht Nezhadi are with Department of Biology, Islamic Azad University, Damghan Branch, Damghan, Iran.

Cite: Mohammad Reza Darabi, Abdolhossein Shiravi, and Azindokht Nezhadi, "Can Ethanol Enhance the Cleavage and Development of Blocked Two-cell Embryos?," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 234-238, 2011.