The effects of various antioxidants on the development of parthenogenetic porcine embryos Hyung Soo Yuh & Dong Hun Yu & Mi Jung Shin & Hei Jung Kim & Ki Beom Bae & Dong Seok Lee & Hwi Cheul Lee & Won Kyong Chang & Soo Bong Park & Sang Gyu Lee & Hum Dai Park & Ji Hong Ha & Byung Hwa Hyun & Zae Young Ryoo Received: 29 May 2009 / Accepted: 1 October 2009 / Published online: 14 November 2009 / Editor: J. Denry Sato. # The Society for In Vitro Biology 2009 Abstract The major objective of this study was to improve the development rate of parthenogenetic porcine embryos. In this study, the anti-oxidative and anti-apoptotic effects of three antioxidants, β-mercaptoethanol (β-ME), α-tocopherol, and extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD), were examined on the development of parthenogenetic porcine embryos. The development rate of parthenogenetic porcine embryos to the blastocyst stage was 8.1% for control; 19.1%, 14.6%, and 5.0% for 1, 3, and 5 μM β-ME; 17.2% and 17.5% for 50 and 100 μM α-tocopherol and 12.0% and 4.0% for EC-SOD transgenic mouse embryonic fibroblast (Tg-MEF) and EC- SOD non-transgenic mouse embryonic fibroblast (NTg-MEF) conditioned medium at day 3, respectively. Here, β-ME, α-tocopherol, and EC-SOD Tg-MEF conditioned medium increased the development rate of parthenogenetic porcine embryos to the blastocyst stage (P <0.05). The average number of total cells and apoptotic cells at the blastocyst was analyzed at the optimal conditions of the three antioxidants. The three antioxidants increased the average number of total cells at the blastocyst, and they decreased apoptotic cells at the blastocyst as compared to control without supplementation (P <0.05). When the reactive oxygen species levels in two-cell embryos after 1 μM β-ME and 100 μM α-tocopherol treatment were examined, those were lower than control group (P <0.05). In conclusion, it was found that the three antioxidants, β-mercaptoethanol, α- tocopherol, and EC-SOD Tg-MEF, conditioned medium can play a role as a strong stimulator in the development of parthenogenetic porcine embryos. Keywords Parthenogenesis . Porcine . Embryo . Antioxidant . Apoptosis Introduction Parthenogenesis is a biological reproduction method designed without sperm contribution. It is a very important tool in order to study reproduction mechanisms in the fertilization process and in genetic imprinting, and is essential for many reproduction biotechnologies, such as nuclear transfer and intracytoplasmic sperm injection. It will also be useful in regenerative medicine because histocompatible embryonic stem cells can be established by parthenogenesis (Kim et al. 2007) and could be a source of histocompatible organs or cells which could be trans- planted to patients suffering from diseased and injured tissues. H. S. Yuh : D. H. Yu : M. J. Shin : H. J. Kim : K. B. Bae : D. S. Lee : S. G. Lee : J. H. Ha : Z. Y. Ryoo (*) School of Life Science and Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences, Kyungpook National University, 1370 Sankyuk-dong, Buk-ku, Daegu 702-701, Republic of Korea e-mail: jaewoong64@hanmail.net H. C. Lee : W. K. Chang : S. B. Park Animal Biotechnology Division, National Institute of Animal Science, 564 Omockchen-dong, Suwon 441-706, Republic of Korea H. D. Park Department of Biotechnology, School of Engineering, Daegu University, 15 Jillyang, Gyeongsang, Gyeongbuk 712-714, Republic of Korea B. H. Hyun (*) Disease Model Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, 111 Gwahangro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-806, Republic of Korea e-mail: hyunbh@kribb.re.kr In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.—Animal (2010) 46:148–154 DOI 10.1007/s11626-009-9250-1