Abstract: The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the human recombinant interleukins (rIL -lβ、rIL - 6) had a direct action on the development of early embryos. The experiments were done in ICR mouse. The results revealed： (l)rIL - lβhad no effects on the early embryogenesis of mouse in vitro at the concentration of 4,10 and lOOIU/ml respectively. (2)the development of embryos was significantly suppressed by adding the rIL - 6 to the media at a concentration of 1OOIU/ml,at the same time,the embryotoxcity was clearly observed. These results suggest that IL - 6 may have the effect of direct embryo toxcity at a high concentration.

Key words: Mouse embryo, Embryo culture, rIL-1β, rIL-6, Early embryogenesis