Embryo

Possible Expansion of "Window of Implantation" in Pseudopregnant Mice: Time of Implantation of Embryos at Different Stages of Development Transferred into the Same Recipient

Abstract

Blastocyst implantation and successful establishment of pregnancy require delicate interactions between the embryo and maternal environment. It is believed that the growth of transferred embryos of different ages is synchronized during preimplantation development and that such embryos are implanted in the uterus at the same time. To define the time of synchronization for developing embryos of different ages, embryos at two different stages of development were transferred separately into the oviducts of the same recipient. We then examined the subsequent development of the embryos at various time intervals after transfer. Pronucleus (PN) stage eggs were transferred separately to the right or left oviduct of recipients on day 0, while 8-cell embryos (8C) were transferred to the other oviduct. For 8C, 5, 63 and 74% of transferred embryos were implanted in the uterus at 42, 66 and 90 h post-transfer, respectively. In contrast, none of the transferred PN was implanted until 90 h post-transfer. At 90 h post-transfer, 59% of the PN had successfully implanted. Histological examination revealed that developmental stage of the embryos in both groups synchronized around 162 h post-transfer, even though the implantation was accelerated in 8C compared with PN. Our results indicate that embryos of advanced stage transferred to the oviduct implant in the uterus in advance of younger embryos, and that the uterine development is synchronized at the Neural plate, presomite stage. Our results strongly suggest that uterine receptivity for implantation is expandable in pseudopregnant mice.