An introduction to in vitro embryo production and some of its widely used words and expressions

Document Type : Specialized vocabulary

Author

Ph.D., Animal Physiology, Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

Abstract

The in vitro embryo production (IVEP) is generally used to refer to a number of procedures performed in laboratory which includes the maturation, fertilization, and culture steps required to produce embryos from immature oocytes. The IVEP emerged as an alternative to the in vivo embryo production by superovulation, also known as multiple ovulation embryo transfer (MOET). The IVEP was a technically complex process and had a high implementation cost, so it was formerly expected to increase slowly, focused in specific market demands.
In vitro embryo production has the potential to produce more offspring from genetically valuable animals than standard MOET as it is capable of avoiding most of the causes of failure in MOET (poor response to superovulation, poor fertilization and premature luteolysis). It also allows repeating collection in the donor animals more often and more times in their reproductive life. However, consistent results are not easy to obtain when conducting large scale programs, mainly due to variability associated with the in vitro fertilization results. Here some of the wildly used jargon in the IVEP lab, were provided.

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