Hormonal influences on the glycogen content of normal and delayed implanting mouse blastocysts

✍ Scribed by Ozias, C. Blake ;Weitlauf, Harry M.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 392 KB
• Volume: 177
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401770203

✦ Synopsis

The proportion of delayed implanting mouse blastocysts capable of normal development following transfer to pseudopregnant recipients is influenced by the length of the delay period. Thus, approximately one-third develop normally when transferred on days 5, 9 or 15 (day 1, day of vaginal plug), while only 3% do so when transferred on day 30 (Weitlauf and Greenwald, '68a). In the present experiments, the amount of glycogen in normal and delayed implanting mouse blastocysts was estimated enzymatically to determine whether it plays a limiting role in embryonic survival.

Normal blastocysts and delayed implanting blastocysts (i.e., in mice ovariectomized on day 4) contained a similar amount of glycogen on day 5. However, by day 10 the amount of glycogen in the delayed implanting blastocysts dropped to about half that found on day 5 but showed no further decrease between day 10 and day 30. Therefore, the amount of glycogen in delayed implanting mouse blastocysts does not appear to be the limiting factor in embryonic survival.