Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: Mineral oil is widely used to culture embryos in biomedicine, agriculture, and embryo/stem cell research, yet is poorly defined with significant batch variation causing detrimental effects. The highly hydrophobic nature of this petroleum product attracts polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and other potentially harmful compounds. Industry requirements for screening oil utilize methods that lack the sensitivity necessary to avoid oil that is overtly embryotoxic...