Frozen-thawed embryos produced by Ovum Pick Up of immature oocytes and ICSI are capable to establish pregnancies in the horse

摘要

The collection of immature oocytes by Ovum Pick Up (OPU) and subsequent embryo production in vitro is a reality in the cattle breeding industry [1]. By contrast, in the equine only very few reports have been published [2,3] and no attempts have been made to transfer this technology from the laboratory to an applied clinical context. The reasons are linked mainly to the more difficult procedures for oocyte collection, fertilisation in vitro and development of the early embryos, difficulties that overlap the well known problems related to recipient mare synchronisation, embryo transfer and embryo freezing. Therefore, the aim of this study has been to demonstrate that the OPU technique can be applied in the horse with consistent results obtaining embryos at the late morula-blastocyst stage capable of establishing a pregnancy following freezing and thawing.