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Astaxanthin is a kind of carotenoid compounds, having a antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The antioxidative mechanism by which carotenoid scavenge free radicals has been clearly elucidated, but has not tried for the development of mammalian preimplantation embryo. This study was conducted to investigate the antioxidative effect of astaxanthin on in vitro development of porcine in vitro fertilized embryos. Porcine embryos derived from in vitro fertilization (IVF) were cultured in 5% CO2 in air at 38.5℃ in PZM-3 medium supplemented with different dosages of astaxanthin (0, 1, 5 and 10 M) and taurine (0, 1, 2.5 and 5 mM) as a positive control, and execute to compare the effects of various antioxidants such as taurine, melatonin and asculatin on in vitro development. The proportions of embryos developed to the blastocyst stage were increased when 1 and 5 M of astaxanthin (26.6 and 23.4%, respectively) and 1 and 2.5 mM taurine (25.8 and 26.4%, respectively) were supplemented, compared to controls (p<0.05). Also, various antioxidant-treated groups were significantly higher rates of blastocysts (astaxanthin, 27.4%; taurine, 29.1%; melatonin, 26.8%; aesculetin, 27.9%, respectively ) than control (18.8%). There was no difference in mean cell number of blastocysts between antioxidants and control. This result indicates that astaxanthin has an antioxidant feature when porcine IVF embryos were cultured in vitro.