Timing of the first zygotic cleavage as a marker of developmental potential of mammalian embryos

SUMMARYEmbryo quality related to its developmental potential is now one of the most important issues in modern embryology. It has been demonstrated that some in vitro produced blastocysts fail to hatch and implant after transfer despite a normal morphology. Although embryos are able to adjust to sub-optimal culture conditions, significant changes in expression profiles of developmentally important genes have been noticed. Timing of the first zygotic cleavage is considered a non-invasive marker of embryo developmental potential and has been successfully used in human IVF programs for identifying embryos of superior quality. Early-cleaving zygotes are more likely to develop to the blastocyst stage than their late-cleaving counterparts. The timing of the first zygotic cleavage has been associated with several parameters that may affect developmental potential of the resulting embryos. The mechanism causing variation in this phenomenon has not been identified. It may be related to culture environment or to some intrinsic factors within the oocyte, the sperm or both. In this paper we discuss some of the important aspects related to the timing of the first zygotic cleavage and its influence on the developmental competence of resulting embryos.