
%0 Journal Article
%A Byrne, A. T. 
%A Southgate, J. 
%A Brison, D. R. 
%A Leese, H. J. 
%T Effects of insulin-like growth factors I and II on tumour-necrosis-factor-<font face="symbol">a</font>-induced apoptosis in early murine embryos
%J Reproduction, Fertility and Development
%D 2002/04/05
%V 14
%N 2
%P 79-83
%K blastocyst, IGF, TNF&#945;.
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/RD01015
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/RD01015 
%X The proposition that members of the insulin-like growth factor superfamily act as rescue factors from apoptosis in murine preimplantation embryos was tested. The cytokine tumour necrosis factor &#945; (TNF&#945;) was used to induce apoptosis. Zygotes were cultured for 5 days to the blastocyst stage in the presence or absence of TNF&#945; and in the presence or absence of the insulin-like growth factors, IGF-I or IGF-II. Tumour necrosis factor &#945; significantly increased the percentage of apoptotic cells and reduced the total cell count in Day 5 blastocysts. When IGF-I or IGF-II were added to the culture medium in the presence of TNF&#945;, the cell number and apoptotic dead cell index (DCI) were restored to control values. Insulin-like growth factor-I alone had a greater effect on total cell number than IGF-II alone, but did not significantly decrease the apoptotic DCI. In contrast, IGF-II significantly reduced the number of apoptotic cells. This study shows that IGFs may play a role as apoptotic survival factors in the early mouse embryo. 
