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Encapsulation
of micromanipulated
mammalian embryos
Adil Salim Elsheikh Elgarrai
Department of Reproduction and Obstetrics, Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine, University of Khartoum, Sudan. E-mail:
adilelgarrai@yahoo.com.
Accepted
20 October, 2008 |
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Micromanipulation of gametes is one of the reproductive
biotechnologies that have an obvious contribution to animal
production, human welfare, industry and research. The
current reproductive techniques that employ
micromanipulation are chimerism, embryo bisection,
intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), gene injection and
nuclear transfer (the so cold cloning). In all these
techniques it is necessary to perforate, slit or even to
remove zona pellucida (ZP). The ZP is a glycoprotein layer
that protects embryos not only from predators but also
protects them from toxic substances in culture media and/or
uterine environment. This article summarized the influences
of micromanipulation and encapsulation with artificial ZP (AZP)
made of sodium alginate on in vitro development of
micromanipulated embryos. The article also described how
embryos with defective ZP (DZP) could be microencapsulated
with an AZP.
Key
word:
Encapsulation, DZP, sodium alginate, embryos. |
