Park Sang-hyun, a graduate student (Ph.D. candidate) in the College of Veterinary Medicine, has drawn attention in academic circles by presenting research that can produce high-quality in vitro-produced bovine embryos. This research has established a foundation for producing high-quality cattle.

Park presented his findings at the recent Spring Conference of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer, showing that using follicular fluid instead of the serum traditionally used during in vitro maturation of bovine oocytes can produce higher-quality embryos. He received the Outstanding Paper Presentation Award.

Currently, reactive oxygen species generated during in vitro maturation of bovine oocytes cause cell death and can even lead to embryo loss, thereby reducing embryo quality.

To prevent this, Park demonstrated that replacing the conventionally used serum with follicular fluid (an albumin-like fluid within the antral follicles that surround the oocyte) reduces reactive oxygen species and cell death, enabling the production of higher-quality embryos.

This suggests that follicular fluid can serve as an alternative to serum and play a major role as a culture medium supplement for producing high-quality bovine embryos. It is also expected to contribute significantly to research on transgenic cloned cattle and to studies of in vitro embryo production in cattle.

Park Sang-hyun said, "Through this research, we confirmed that follicular fluid reduces reactive oxygen species and cell death during in vitro maturation and culture in cattle," and added, "We plan to carry out further studies necessary to produce high-quality cloned embryos and in vitro embryos using follicular fluid."