Effects of fructose supplementation in chemically defined protein-free medium on development of bovine in vitro fertilized embryos.

The present study evaluated the possible embryotrophic role of fructose supplementation in potassium simplex optimization medium (KSOM) on preimplantation development of bovine in vitro matured and fertilized (IVF) embryos under chemically defined conditions. In Experiment 1, the rates of cleavage (74.0-75.5%) and blastocyst formation (21.0-24.5%) were not affected by the supplementation of fructose in KSOM in absence or presence of glucose. In Experiment 2, the rates of cleavage (71.7-77.3%) and blastocyst formation (19.9-26.3%) did not differ significantly among the concentrations (0.0, 0.2, 1.5, 3.0, 5.6mM) of fructose supplementations in KSOM in presence of glucose. Moreover, the number of total ICM and TE cells, and percentage of ICM to total cell in blastocysts did not differ significantly among the concentrations of fructose supplementations in presence of glucose. In Experiment 3, the rates of cleavage (67.3-74.7%) and blastocyst formation (14.4-19.3%) did not differ significantly among the concentrations (0.0, 0.2, 1.5, 3.0, 5.6mM) of fructose supplementations in KSOM in absence of glucose. Although the number of total and ICM cells, and percentage of ICM to total cells in blastocysts did not differ significantly among the concentrations of fructose supplementations, 1.5mM fructose supplementation in absence of glucose had significantly (P<0.05) higher number of TE cells (106.2) than that of 5.6mM (84.0) supplementation. The study indicates that, fructose up to 5.6mM concentration can be used as an alternative for energy substrate in culture media without any detrimental effect on pre-implantation development in bovine IVF embryos.