Introduction

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is an efficient technique that has been successfully applied to developmental biology. However, the efficiency of SCNT is still very low. In this study, we investigated effect of epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin growth factor (IGF) and flavonoid supplements in SCNT bovine embryos development.

Materials and Methods

In experiment, SCNT bovine embryos were cultured in CR1aa medium containing 10% FBS at 38.8℃ in an incubator (5% CO₂, 5% O₂, and 90% N₂) for 8 days and embryos equally divided into four groups [non-treated group (control), treated 1 µM IGF+EGF (IE), 10 µM flavonoid and 1 µM  IGF+EGF+10 µM flavonoid (IEF)] at day 2 selected cleavage embryos.

Results and Discussion

In result, development rate of flavonoid treatment group (30.6%) was higher than that of control (26.2), IE (24.7%) and IEF groups (28.9%). However, hatching rate of IE (57.2%) and IEF (63.2%) groups were significantly higher than that of control (41.8%) and flavonoid group (42.8%). In comparison total cell number, IE group (131.2±9.2) was significantly higher than control group (110.4±8.2). Apoptotic index in IE group (2.1%) was the lowest compared to that of control (4.5%), flavonoid (2.9%) and IEF groups (4.8%). This result demonstrated that combination of IGF, EGF and flavonoid supplements can be helpful to improve development potential and quality of SCNT bovine embryos.