Supplementation of insulin–transferrin–selenium to embryo culture medium improves the in vitro development of pig embryos

Summary Insulin, transferrin and selenium (ITS) supplementation to oocyte maturation medium improves the post-fertilization embryonic development in pigs. ITS is also commonly used as a supplement for the in vitro culture (IVC) of embryos and stem cells in several mammalian species. However, its use during IVC of pig embryos has not been explored. This study investigated the effect of ITS supplementation to IVC medium on the in vitro development ability of pig embryos produced by parthenogenetic activation (PA), in vitro fertilization (IVF) or somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). We observed that ITS had no significant effect on the rate of first cleavage ( P > 0.05). However, the rate of blastocyst formation in ITS-treated PA (45.3 ± 1.9 versus 27.1 ± 2.3%), IVF (31.6 ± 0.6 versus 23.5 ± 0.6%) and SCNT (17.6 ± 2.3 versus 10.7 ± 1.4%) embryos was significantly higher ( P < 0.05) than those of non-treated controls. Culture of PA embryos in the presence of ITS also enhanced the expansion and hatching ability (29.1 ± 3.0 versus 18.2 ± 3.8%; P < 0.05) of blastocysts and increased the total number of cells per blastocyst (53 ± 2.5 versus 40.9 ± 2.6; P < 0.05). Furthermore, the beneficial effect of ITS on PA embryos was associated with significantly reduced level of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) (20.0 ± 2.6 versus 46.9 ± 3.0). However, in contrast to PA embryos, ITS had no significant effect on the blastocyst quality of IVF and SCNT embryos ( P > 0.05). Taken together, these data suggest that supplementation of ITS to the IVC medium exerts a beneficial but differential effect on pig embryos that varies with the method of embryo production in vitro .