Comparison of Holstein and Jersey day 6 embryos

Some embryos display better survival potential to cryopreservation than others. The cause of such phenotype is still unclear and might be due to cell damage during cryopreservation, resulting from over-accumulation and composition of lipids. In cattle embryos, in vitro culture conditions have been shown to impact the number of lipid droplets within blastomeres. So far, the impact of breed on embryonic lipid content has not yet been studied. In this study were compared the colour, lipid droplet abundance, lipid composition, mitochondrial activity, and gene expression of in vivo collected Jersey breed embryos which are known to display poor performance post-freezing and in vivo Holstein embryos which have good cryotolerance. Holstein in vivo day 6 embryos vs Jersey in vivo day 6 embryos: 4 replicates of each breed, with dye-swap.