Effects of combined epidermal growth factor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor and insulin-like growth factor-1 on human oocyte maturation and early fertilized and cloned embryo development

Abstract

This study demonstrated that EGF, BDNF and IGF-1 can improve oocyte maturation rate and quality in vitro, and consequently increase early embryo development and blastocyst formation, which is very beneficial in improving the reprogramming efficiency of SCNT. The present study has identified a valuable culture system for IVM and cloned human embryos, potentially using these embryos to derive human therapeutic ESC.