THE INFLUENCE OF VERO CELL-CULTURE ON HUMAN EMBRYO DEVELOPMENT AND CHORIONIC-GONADOTROPIN PRODUCTION IN-VITRO

Co-culture of human embryos with cell layers has generally shown that blastocyst formation rates are improved compared to routine culture in medium alone. In order to assess this further we have additionally cl assified resulting blastocysts according to their morphology and secre tion of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG). A total of 70 supernumera ry human embryos from 15 patients were divided equally and randomly be tween two culture conditions: (i) co-culture with Vero cells; and (ii) culture in our routine medium. Embryo development and morphology were recorded for up to 14 days in culture. The results showed that embryo s on Vero cells had a significantly higher blastocyst formation rate ( P <0.02) by or on day 6 of development than those in routine culture m edium alone (77 and 46% respectively). For HCG analysis, the culture m edium was changed in both culture systems on days 5, 7, 9, 12 and 13 o f embryo development and analysed. Most embryos began to produce HCG b etween days 7 and 9, with HCG secretion being significantly higher fro m embryos on Vero cells between days 9 and 12 than from embryos in rou tine culture (P <0.03), The morphology of the blastocysts obtained was related to their ability to hatch and produce HCG but was not signifi cantly better for one type of culture system than for the other.