Coculture of mouse embryos with cells isolated from the human ovarian follicle, oviduct, and uterine endometrium.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the specificity of somatic cell support by comparing embryonic development during long-term in vitro coculture with feeder cells derived from the human ovarian follicle, oviduct, and endometrium.

DESIGN

Comparative study of murine embryo development and degeneration during 6 days of in vitro coculture.

RESULTS

All feeder-cell cultures were beneficial to embryonic development and viability. Few differences were observed between feeder cell types (epithelial or fibroblastic) or cell origin (ovarian follicle, oviductal, or endometrial). Embryos developed to the eight-cell stage in 24 hours whether in coculture (83.6% to 100%) or in media alone (85.2%); however, further development in media alone decreased compared with coculture (15.6% versus 63.4% to 87.7%, plating) and embryo degeneration increased (67.9% versus 5.5% to 19.4%) after 6 days.

CONCLUSIONS

[1] Coculture of embryos with human reproductive tract cells is beneficial to embryonic development and viability. [2] Human somatic cell support of murine embryos during long-term in vitro coculture is not tissue specific nor dependent on cell type.