Metabolism of the early embryo: energy production and utilization

Abstract

The vast majority of studies on early mammalian embryo metabolism have been concerned with the generation, rather than the fate, of ATP. Thus, research has focused on the uptake or metabolism of energy sources added to embryo culture media. There have been an even greater number of studies in which metabolism as such has not been measured, but rather where blastocyst formation has been used as an endpoint to assess the effect of different energy sourees. It is generally agreed that the early phases of mammalian preimplantation development are relatively quiescent metabolically, relying on substrates such as pyruvate, lactate, or amino acids, which are metabolized aerobically (1–5)