A new technique to effectively grow and screen embryos has been developed by a team of researchers from Taiwan.
As a result, the costly procedure of IVF could become more accessible and less time consuming since the embryos with the best chance for successful implantation would be selected.
"It will lower the stress level of patients greatly if the number of IVF cycles and embryos transferred can be reduced while maintaining a promising outcome," says lead author Chihchen Chen. "We are interested in understanding the essential needs of a developing embryo and aiming to improve embryo culture."
The current procedure involves pooling the embryos together in droplets of fluid before transferring them into the uterus, making individual screening problematic.
Yet with the Taiwanese device, each embryo gets its own nook.
A plate of open microwells into which the embryos could be spread would allow for individual screening and accessibility by means of a micropipette, according to the paper describing the new device.
"Embryos are very sensitive to their environments," says Chen. "Understanding the microenvironment of embryos allows us to promote the growth and minimize the epigenetic manipulation of embryos."
Working with mouse embryos, the team used high-resolution time-lapse imaging to track how they fared in the new device and saw them develop successfully into blastocysts, the ball of numerous cells that occurs after fertilization.
The quality of the embryos was assessed based on the length of time they took to divide into four and eight cells, for it turned out to be an accurate indicator of whether they would move into the blastocyst stage successfully or not.
This makes for a simple way to screen and select the embryos that appear the most promising, according to the study, and the targeted approach could reduce the number of eggs necessary to create one baby.
Chen says the next step is to optimize the experimental conditions for human embryos and validate the technology for clinical trials.
The researchers' paper was published in the journal Biomicrofluidics.
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