objective: the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of laser assisted hatching on the development and quality of vitrified-warmed 4-cell stage mouse embryos. materials and methods: the vitrified-warmed 4-cell mouse embryos were divided into two groups: control group (without laser assisted hatching) and experiment group (with laser assisted hatching). all embryos in both groups were ...

Certain sperm components labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate or its radioactive derivative, 125I-diiodofluorescein isothiocyanate (125IFC), are transferred at fertilization to the egg, where they persist throughout early cleavage stages at a localized site in the embryo cytoplasm (Gabel, C. A., E. M. Eddy, and B. M. Shapiro, 1979, Cell, 18:207-215; Gundersen, G. G., C. A. Gabel, and B. M. S...

BACKGROUND Assisted hatching (AH) is a manipulation of zona pellucida aiming to facilitate embryo implantation. METHODS Systematic review and meta-analysis of medical literature was used to evaluate the effect of AH on assisted reproduction outcomes: clinical pregnancy, live birth, multiple pregnancy and miscarriage. Additional analysis was performed in these subgroups: (i) fresh embryos tran...

Prolonged in vitro cultivation allows us to obtain better quality embryos and provides better intrauterine conditions for transfer. The aim of this study was to compare the results of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedures in which 1, 2 or 3 blastocysts (group 1) were transferred with the results of IVF procedures in which 1, 2 or 3 embryos at the stage of 8 cells to morula, achieved under the...

To determine the critical cell numbers needed to form blastocyst stage embroys, bisected mouse embryos of 8-cell stage and compacted morula (approximately 16 cells) containing different numbers of blastomeres were cultured in vitro. The percentage of bisected compacted morulae with 7-9 blastomeres that developed to eu-blastocysts was 98.8%, while only 64.2% of the bisected 8-cell embryos with 4...

Mitochondria, cellular organelles playing essential roles in eukaryotic cell metabolism, are thought to have evolved from bacteria. The organization of mtDNA is remarkably uniform across species, reflecting its vital and conserved role in oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Our objectives were to evaluate the compatibility of xenogeneic mitochondria in the development of preimplantation embryos...

A number of non-invasive methods have been proposed to evaluate embryo viability in human in-vitro fertilization programmes. In addition to biochemical analyses, a common method for the selection of embryos prior to transfer involves assessment of embryo quality and morphology. We propose a new method to evaluate embryo viability based on the timing of the first cell division. Fertilized embryo...