www.SID.ir Int J Women’s Health Reproduction Sci Vol. 1, No. 3, Autumn 2013 ISSN 2330-4456 Can activators enhance potentially developmental capacity of 2-cell blocked mouse embryos? Mohammad Reza Darabi1*, Parvindokht Bayat 1, Ali Reza Shams 2, Azindokht Nezhadi 3, Ali Faraji 4 Abstract: Objective: Two-cell block as a problem occurs in some couples referring to infertility center. This study was designed to compare the effect of different kinds of chemical activators on arrested mouse two-cell stage embryos in order to enhance cleavage and developmental formation rate. Material and Methods: Following superovulation, the female mice were mated with males and positive vaginal plaque mice were euthanized 48 hours after hCG injection. Subsequently, 2cell embryos were collected and randomly cultured (in M16 medium) in six groups. Some embryos were washed and cultured as 1st group without any exposure. The remaining 2-cell stage embryos were exposed to 4°C for 24 hours in order to arrest in 2-cell stage for 2nd to 6th groups. The 2nd group was incubated immediately, while the 3rd group was exposed to 10 μM Ionomycine for 3 minutes and the 4th group was exposed to 10 mM strontium for 5 minutes. The 5th group was exposed to %0.1 Ethanol for 5 minutes and the 6th group to %0.1 Methanol for 3 minutes. Subsequently, all groups were incubated up to blastocyst stage. Results: Data were analysed employing a one-way Anova test the results show that the rate of degenerated embryos is significantly different (P
