Microarray assessment of methylation in individual mouse blastocyst stage embryos shows that in vitro culture may have widespread genomic effects

Abstract

We conclude that a general assessment of genomic methylation in blastocyst stage embryos is technically feasible. Data from this small sample suggest that in vitro embryo culture is associated with generalized hypermethylation as well as increased locus-to-locus variability in methylation. However, it is premature to conclude that this is a general property of in vitro cultured blastocysts.