The embryo culture media in the era of epigenetics

A recent article reviewed evidence relating the importance of the composition of culture media on the health of embryos, fetuses, newborns, and adults generated by assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

Despite the prevalence of chemically-defined media use, these substrates fail to suitably account for the biological demands of early embryogenesis. An alternative and more natural way to support embryo growth in vitro, could be inclusion of endogenous reproductive fluids as additives in the ART culture media for humans (and also pigs and cows) – in order to ward off the main undesirable consequences of ART

However, further research is necessary to address the question as to how many health problems could be avoided by enriching the culture media for ART with all the components physiologically found in the female reproductive system?

Source: Animal Reproduction. 2022; 19(1): e20210132. doi: 10.1590/1984-3143-AR2021-0132