Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of anordrin (2 alpha, 17 alpha-diethynyl-A-nor-5 alpha-androstane-2 beta, 17 beta-diol diproprionate)

Effect of anordrin on the development of mouse preimplantation embryos in vitro

PURPOSE

The in vitro effect of anordrin and anordiol on the development of mouse two-cell embryos was studied.

METHOD

Female mice were primed with gonadotropins for superovulation and caged with male mice. Preimplantation embryos, at the two-cell stage, were recovered from the oviducts at 40 hr post-hCG. In the first experiment, two-cell embryos were exposed to culture medium containing different concentrations of anordrin for 3, 12, 24, and 80 hr and then grown in the anordrin-free culture medium and assessed for the formation of total and hatching blastocysts at 80 hr. In the second experiment, two-cell embryos were grown in culture medium containing different concentrations of anordiol and assessed for the formation of total and hatching blastocysts at 80 hr in vitro.

RESULTS

Exposure of two-cell embryos to anordrin concentrations of 2.5-7.5 micrograms/ml for 12 hr, 2.5-5.0 micrograms/ml for 24 hr, and 2.5 micrograms/ml for 80 hr caused significant inhibition of the formation of total blastocysts and to 2.5-7.5 micrograms/ml for 12 hr, 1.0-2.5 micrograms/ml for 24 hr, and 1.0 micrograms/ml for 80 hr caused significant inhibition of the formation of hatching blastocysts, in a exposure time-dependent and dose-dependent manner. Exposure of two-cell embryos to anordiol concentrations of 15-25 micrograms/ml for 80 hr caused significant inhibition of the formation of total blastocysts and to 15-20 micrograms/ml for 80 hr caused significant inhibition of the formation of hatching blastocysts in a dose-dependent manner.

CONCLUSION

Anordrin and its metabolite anordiol inhibit the development of two-cell embryos in vitro.