Ovarian stimulation retards postimplantation development and alters global gene expression profile of blastocysts in mouse

This study compares the quality, developmental capacity and global gene expression profile of embryos generated from superovulated and natural cycles. We found that ovarian stimulation impaired quality of blastocysts (cell number: 68.9 ± 6.9 vs. 76.8 ± 7.9; diameter of blastocysts: 145.3 ± 76.9 μm vs. 152.6 ± 65.5 μm), fetus development (rate of development to term: 45.5% vs. 69.1%; weight of 18.5-dpc fetuses: 1.23 ± 0.03 g vs. 1.34 ± 0.03 g) and caused 92 genes differentially expressed.