The Effect of Melatonin on the Developmental Potential and Implantation Rate of Mouse Embryos

Objective: melatonin is a scavenger agent that has been used to promote in vitro embryodevelopment. thisstudy was designed to show the effectsof melatonin on thequalityand quantity rate of preimplantation mouse embryo development and pregnancy.materials and methods: in this experimental study, super ovulated, mated mice were killed by cervical dislocation to collect two-cell zygotes from the oviduct of pregnant 1 day nmri mice. zygotes were cultured to the hatching blastocyst stage and the numbers of embryos at different stages were recorded under an invertedmicroscope. thecleavage rates oftwo-cellzygoteswereassayeduntiltheblastocystand hatching blastocyst stage in drops of t6medium that containedeithermelatonin (1, 10, and 100×106, 10 and 100×10 m) or no melatonin. the cell numbers of blastocysts were determined by differential staining, implantation outcomes were studied, and development and pregnancy rate were compared by the chi-square (development) and fisher’s exact (pregnancy rate) tests. 9results: the addition of 10 and 100 nm melatonin to the embryo culture mediapromoted the development of the two-cell stage embryos to blastocyst andhatchingblastocysts (p < 0.01) and caused a significant increase in total cell number(tcn), trophoectoderm (te), and inner cell mass (icm) of the blastocysts(p < 0.01).adifferencewas observed in the percentage of transferred embryosthatwere successfully implanted between the control and treatment groups(p < 0.05).conclusion: the data indicate that 10 and 100 nm of melatonin positively impact mouse embryo cleavage rates, blastocyst tcn, and their implantation. therefore,melatonin at low concentrations promotes an embryonic culture system inmice