CHARACTERIZATION OF ELONGATING COW CONCEPTUS ENVIRONMENT:IDENTIFICATION OF PROTEINS AND METABOLITES ESSENTIAL FOR SURVIVAL OF THE CONCEPTUS

The over-arching goal of this project is to increase the number of healthy beef or dairy calves born in the United States by expanding our understanding of interactions between the early bovine conceptus and the uterus and to identify limitations in in vitro fertilized (IVF) bovine conceptus development that could lead to early embryonic loss. The project aims or objectives are 1) characterize the elongating bovine conceptus induced histotroph from intact endometrium and its modification by IVF compared to artificial insemination (AI) produced conceptuses, 2) identify bovine endometrial epithelial and fibroblast cell specific contributions to the uterine histotroph and its modification by IVF compared to AI produced conceptuses and 3) test for an advantage of using bovine endometrial cells in combination with progesterone to improve bovine in vitro embryo culture systems.