Effect of Platelet Activating Factor on Embryonic Development and Implantation in the Mouse

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1996

Description

Platelet activating factor (PAF) was administered to female mice in order to investigate its effect on ovulation rate and on oocyte quality including their in-vitro embryonic development, implantation and uterine receptivity. In experiment 1, 4-week-old female mice were assigned to receive PAF or phosphate buffered saline for 4 consecutive days. On the second day of this treatment, pregnant mares' serum gonadotrophin was administered and human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) 48 h later, after which copulation occurred. Oocytes were collected on the following day and evaluated. The mean number of oocytes and zygotes (two pronuclear stage embryos) recovered from the PAF-treated group was not diffferent from the control group (31 versus 27), but the proportion of zygotes was higher in PAF-treated group than in controls (83 versus 68%, P < 0.05, PAF versus controls). Although the rate of in-vitro first cleavage was not different in the two groups (82 versus 69% respectively), hatching was higher in the PAF-treated group than control mice (99 versus 83%, P < 0.01). In experiment 2, the in-vitro developed blastocysts from experiment 1 were transferred into the uterus of day 3 pseudopregnant PAF-treated or control recipients. Three different combinations of intrauterine transfer were performed; PAF embryo to control recipient (PAF → C: n = 19), control embryo to PAF recipient (C → PAF: n = 19), and control embryo to control recipient (C → C: n = 22). Implantation and abortion were assessed on day 19 post-transfer. The implantation rate of C → PAF (23.7%) was lower than C → C (31.1%, P < 0.05), but was not different from PAF → C (31.2%). Further, C → PAF showed a higher abortion rate per embryo (29.6%) than PAF → C (12.7%, P < 0.05), but was not different from C → C (24.4%). In the present study, PAF administration enables females to produce oocytes with a higher potential for fertilization, in vitro development and implantation, but has a detrimental effect on uterine receptivity to embryos.

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