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Apoptosis in the preimplantation mouse embryo: Effect of strain difference and in vitro culture

Cell death by apoptosis occurs predominantly in the inner cell mass (ICM) of the blastocyst, the cell population which carries the germ line and gives rise to the foetus. The frequency of apoptosis in blastocysts varies widely within outbred species such as human and cow. We have addressed the basis of this variation by examining the relative influence of strain difference and in vitro culture conditions on apoptosis, using embryos from two different strains of mice (MF1 and C57BL6/CBA) in two different culture media (M16 and kSOM). In both strains and all crosses apoptosis was first detected by nuclear fragmentation or TUNEL [Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated d‐UTP nick end‐labelling] labelling at the early blastocyst stage. This was true for embryos which had developed in vivo, and in vitro in both M16 and kSOM. The apoptotic index in blastocysts was found to be significantly different between both media and strain (P < 0.0001). Blastocysts from MF1 × MF1 at equivalent stages had an apoptotic index of 32.4% in M16 and 20.3% in kSOM. Blastocysts from C57BL6/CBA × C57BL6/CBA had an apoptotic index of 19.3% in M16 and 14.4% in kSOM. When embryos of similar cell number were compared, a significantly greater apoptotic index was found for cultured MF1 × MF1 embryos with a cell number between 40 and 59 compared to similar directly flushed C57BL6/CBA embryos (P = 0.001), and MF1 embryos (P < 0.0005). MF1 × MF1 embryos and C57BL6/CBA × MF1 embryos of 60–79 cells had a greater apoptotic index in M16 than kSOM (P < 0.0005) but the difference between media was not significant for C57BL6/CBA × C57BL6/CBA. When strain was compared MF1 × MF1 embryos of 60–79 cells had a significantly greater apoptotic index than C57BL6/CBA × MF1 in both media (P < 0.0005 M16; P = 0.002 kSOM) and than C57BL6/CBA × C57BL6/CBA in M16 (P = 0.019). Our data suggest that genetic make‐up and the chemical composition of simple medium are equally important in determining the level of apoptosis. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 61: 67–77, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.