It wasn't long ago that horse owners might have scoffed at the notion that a foal could be produced in a laboratory. But researchers are getting closer to such an achievement: Using a novel protocol, researchers have successfully matured equine embryos created through in vitro (in the laboratory) fertilization after maturing the oocytes, also in vitro, said Ghylène Goudet, PhD.

Goudet, of the Reproduction and Behavior Physiology Laboratory of the French National Agricultural Research Institute, presented her research at the 2014 French Equine Research Day, held March 18 in Paris.

During fertilization, the sperm and the egg—each an individual cell with its own condensed nucleus—fuse into a single cell containing the two nuclei. At the beginning of embryo development, these two nuclei diffuse and then fuse into one nucleus, a process known as pronuclei decondensation