Magnesium is a critical element for competent development of bovine embryos

The study was designed to determine the impact of magnesium (Mg2+) on bovine embryo development. We found that two commercially available sources of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and fetal bovine serum (FBS) contained different amounts of Mg2+ residue: 4 ppm in ICPbio BSA, 114 ppm in Sigma BSA, and 44 ppm in FBS. When CR1 was used as basal medium, PVA and ICPbio BSA produced the lowest blastocyst yield (2.2–2.3%), whereas Sigma BSA increased blastocyst yield to 18.9% (P 0.05). We next found that increasing concentrations of MgCl2 in the culture medium (ICPbio BSA) elevated blastocyst rate from 2.6% (0 mM), 38.4% (0.35 mM) to 50.2% (1.4 mM; P 0.05). However, blastocyst rate was reduced to 31.4% (4.2 mM) and 29.4% (5.6 mM) when MgCl2 supplement was increased (P 0.05). In embryo transfer experiments, higher rates of pregnancy (54.3 vs. 41.5%) and calving (44.3 vs. 32.5%) were achieved in the CR1-Mg2+-supplemented BSA group compared with the FBS group with co-culture, respectively (P