Characterization of embryos derived from calf oocytes: kinetics of cleavage, cell allocation to inner cell mass, and trophectoderm and lipid metabolism

Embryos derived from calf oocytes were compared with adult cow oocyte-derived embryos (1) by studying the kinetics of embryo development using time-lapse cinematography (2) by evaluating the ratio between inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE) cells in blastocysts (3) by measuring the triglyceride content of the blastocysts. The rate of calf oocyte-derived embryos reaching the blastocyst stage was reduced (26 vs. 46% for adult derived embryos). Calf oocyte-derived embryos preferably arrested their development before the 9-cell stage. Those that developed into blastocysts had cleaved earlier to reach the 2-cell or 3-cell stages than embryos that arrested before the 9-cell stage. The 9-cell stage tended to appear later in calf oocyte-derived embryo that reached the blastocyst stage than in adult-derived embryos. This difference became significant at the morula stage. Accordingly, the fourth cell cycle duration was longer for calf oocyte-derived embryos. Day 8 blastocysts from both sources had similar total cell numbers (calf: 89 +/- 20; cow: 100 +/- 30) and cell distribution between TE and ICM. The triglyceride content of day 7 blastocysts was similar for both sources (64 +/- 15 vs. 65 +/- 6 ng/embryo, respectively). In conclusion, calf oocyte-derived embryos are characterized by a higher rate of developmental arrest before the 9-cell stage and by a longer lag phase preceding the major onset of embryonic genome expression. These changes might be related to insufficient "capacitation" of the calf oocyte during follicular growth. Despite these differences, modifications in the quality of the resulting blastocysts were not detected.