Effect of three oxygen levels in culture atmosphere and addition of commercial antioxidant in the development of bovine embryos produced in vitro

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of three oxygen concentrations in the incubation environment and the use of a commercial antioxidant in semi-defined, sequential culture media on the in vitro production of bovine embryos. After in vitro fertilization, the presumptive zygotes were randomly assigned to six treatments under factorial arrangement: with and without the antioxidant compound (Sigma antioxidant supplement®), under three oxygen concentrations (2%, 5% and 20%) in the incubation atmosphere. The results were analyzed by Análisis de Varianza (Anova), using Tukey test (p < 0.05) to compare treatments. Reduced oxygen (2%), in the incubation environment, had a positive effect on blastocysts and morula production percentage, and cell number (p < 0.05). It is concluded that there are positive effects in the use of reduced oxygen (2%).