Culture of one-cell hamster embryos with water soluble vitamins: pantothenate stimulates blastocyst production

The effects of water-soluble vitamins, singly or in combinations, on develo pment of hamster 1-cell embryos were examined in a protein-free, chemically defined culture medium, HECM-6. Pantothenate significantly stimulated blas tocyst development compared to the vitamin-free control and to every other single vitamin, except thiamine, Ascorbic acid, biotin, choline, folic acid ? inositol, niacinamide, pyridoxal, riboflavin and thiamine had no detectab le stimulation or inhibition on cleavage stage development or morula/blasto cyst formation. When combinations of vitamins were tested, embryo developme nt was either unchanged or significantly greater than in the control, but n ever significantly greater than development with pantothenate alone, A dose response to pantothenate indicated that 3 mu mol/l was the optimum concent ration. After embryo transfer, the percentage of live fetuses recovered per 100 1-cell embryos cultured in HECM-6 plus pantothenate (now designated HE CM-9) was 24%, significantly higher than the 11% recovered from 100 1-cell embryos cultured in HECM-6 alone. This is the first report to show a stimul atory effect of a single vitamin on in-vitro development of preimplantation embryos in ally mammalian species.