The social and legal acceptability of third-party reproduction varies around the world. In Australia, gamete and embryo donation and surrogacy are permitted within the regulatory framework set out by federal and state governments. The aim of this paper is to describe the social context and regulatory framework for third-party reproduction in Australia. This is a review of current laws and regul...

Craniofacial birth defects occur in 1 out of every 700 live births, but etiology is rarely known due to limited understanding of craniofacial development. To identify where signaling pathways and tissues act during patterning of the developing face, a 'face transplant' technique has been developed in embryos of the frog Xenopus laevis. A region of presumptive facial tissue (the "Extreme Anterio...

Treatment of same-sex couples using infertility therapies has become more acceptable over the years, but remains controversial. In December 2005, two law changes came into force in the UK that impact same-sex couples. Firstly, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 acknowledged legal relationships between same-sex couples; and secondly, the Adoption and Children Act 2002 allowed same-sex couples to ado...

The aim of this study was to assess the application of a cryopreservation program to preserve two selected rabbit lines. One of them was selected by litter size at weaning, line V (Synthetic breed). The second, line R (synthetic breed), was selected by growth rate. In this study, embryos were collected, from donor does belonging to the 7th and 15th generations of lines R and V, respectively, we...

Primary ovarian pregnancy is a rare type of ectopic pregnancy, particularly following in vitro fertilization. Although there have been a few reported cases of primary ovarian pregnancy following in vitro fertilization embryo transfer, we believe this is the first report involving donor embryo transfer. A high index of clinical suspicion, abnormal human chorionic gonadotropin levels, and early u...

Background Platelets contain a significant amount of growth factors that have positive effects on local tissue repair and endometrial receptivity. Case Here we present a 45-yr-old woman with primary infertility and two failed in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles who was candidate to receive donor eggs. Five consecutive frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles with good quality embryos were perform...

The pattern of expression of the carbohydrate epitope L5 was studied during early development of the chick neuroepithelium. Immunoreactivity first appears during gastrulation, at mid-primitive streak stage, and persists until at least 3.5 days of development. The epitope is expressed on all the components of the developing nervous system, both central and peripheral. In immunoblots, the antibod...

BACKGROUND Several reports have shown that inadvertent administration of a GnRH agonist in the luteal phase does not compromise pregnancy. Moreover, some studies suggested that, unexpectedly, the embryo developmental potential is improved in these conditions. This prospective controlled study was designed to test this hypothesis. METHODS In an oocyte donation programme, oocytes from each dono...