Improvement of in vitro fertilization and early embryo development in mice by coculture with human fallopian tube epithelium.

Coculturing one- and two-cell embryos with various cell lines has been shown to overcome species-specific developmental blocks and to improve blastocyst transformation rates. The objective of this study was to assess whether human fallopian tube epithelium organ explants influence in vitro fertilization and subsequent early embryo development in a murine model. Fertilization, blastocyst transformation, and blastocyst expansion and hatching rates were significantly higher in the coculture group when compared with rates for culture in standard media or media conditioned by human tubal explant cultures. The results from conditioned and unconditioned media were not significantly different.