THE EFFECT OF COCULTURE ON THE POSTFERTILIZATION DEVELOPMENT OF IN VITRO-MATURED MONKEY OOCYTES

Objective: To determine if the developmental potential of embryos resu lting from in vivo- and in vitro-matured monkey oocytes could be incre ased through the use of a coculture system. Design: Randomized prospec tive comparison of embryos resulting from either in vitro- or in vivo- matured oocytes cocultured with Vero cells or cultured in medium alone (control). Setting: Basic research laboratory. Main Outcome Measures: In vitro embryo development to the blastocyst stage and blastocyst ha tching. Results: No significant difference in development was noted be tween coculture and control groups with embryos resulting from in vivo -matured oocytes. However, coculture was found to improve significantl y the development of monkey embryos resulting from in vitro-matured oo cytes. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that primate embryos res ulting from in vitro-matured and in vitro-fertilized oocytes differ in their culture requirement when compared with embryos resulting from i n vivo-matured oocytes.