This study was conducted to determine the effects of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), fetal bovine serum (FBS) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) on blastocoel formation, total cell number, apoptosis and Bcl-xL and Bak gene expression in porcine presumptive diploid parthenotes developing in vitro. The addition of 0.4% BSA to the culture medium enhanced the development of 2-cell or late 4-cell stage parthenotes to the blastocyst stage (P < 0.01) while FBS decreased the incidence of blastocoel formation. FBS also reduced the frequency of blastocysts developed from both 2-cell (P < 0.001) and late 4-cell (P < 0.05) embryos and increased the percentage of blastocysts undergoing apoptosis (P < 0.001). The relative abundance of Bcl-xL mRNA in presumptive diploid parthenotes in the control, PVA- and BSA-supplemented medium was similar to that of in vivo-derived embryos, but was significantly higher than in parthenotes cultured with FBS supplement (P < 0.05). Bak mRNA significantly increased at the blastocyst stage in FBS-supplemented cells (P < 0.01). These results suggest that apoptosis-related gene expression is significantly affected by FBS, and that this may result in alteration of apoptosis and embryo viability of porcine embryos developing in vitro.