Heat-shock proteins modulate the incidence of apoptosis and oxidative stress in preimplantation mouse embryos

We investigated the effect of antibodies to heat-shock proteins 60 and 70 on development, reactive oxygen species production, and incidence of apoptosis in preimplantation mouse embryos. Supplementation of culture media with antibodies to heat-shock proteins 60 and 70 resulted in significantly lower blastocyst development, hatching rate, reduced total cell number, and trophectoderm cell number, and increased the incidence of apoptosis in blastocysts compared to the control group.