Partial replacement of fetal bovine serum during in vitro culture decreases phospholipid content in in vitro produced bovine embryos

Fetal bovine serum (FBS) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) are important components during bovine embryo in vitro culture (IVC), but they are associated with excess of embryonic lipid, which might impair embryo development. This study aimed to partially replace FBS by BSA V FAF during bovine IVC, evaluate embryo production and quantify the phospholipid content in produced embryos, SFB and IVC medium. The embryos were in vitro cultured in medium supplied with 10% of FBS (FBS10%) or with 5% of FBS plus 0.03 g BSA V FAF (FBS5%/BSA). The lipid content was evaluated using UHPLC-MS/MS and statistical analysis was performed using t-test and ANOVA. The partial replacement of FBS by BSA V FAF did not alter embryo production. Ten phospholipids were identified in both groups and three of them, DOPC (p=0.037), POPG (p=0.046) and C24: 1-SM (p=0.009) presented lower concentration in FBS5%/BSA culture medium. The phospholipids identified on embryos matches with those found on SFB and culture medium and four of them DOPC (p=0.013), DPPC (p=0.004), POPG (p=0.05) and C24:1SM (p=0.003) reduced its concentration when FBS was reduced. Theses founds shown that the FBS partial replacement reduces phospholipids content in embryos but do not decrease embryo production, suggesting a technical improvement.