Important data relative to organogenesis and teratogenesis can be learned from the study of early embryos derived from induced abortions, which are legal in Japan. Nearly 1/3 of the conceptuses from the unrecognized period of pregnancy (less than 35 days) possess abnormalities, most of which would normally cause them to be aborted. The commonest findings were degeneration and necrosis and neu...

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine and metabolic disorder in women. The abnormalities of endocrine and intra-ovarian paracrine interactions may change the microenvironment for oocyte development during the folliculogenesis process and reduce the developmental competence of oocytes in PCOS patients who are suffering from anovulatory infertility and pregnancy loss....

background: embryo morphology has been proposed as an alternative marker of chromosomal status. the objective of this retrospective cohort study was to investigate the association between the chromosomal status on day 3 of embryo development and blastocyst morphology.embryo morphology has been proposed as an alternative marker of chromosomal status. the objective of this retrospective cohort st...

Background Selecting the best embryo for transfer, with the highest chance of achieving a vital pregnancy, is a major goal in current in vitro fertilization (IVF) technology. The high rate of embryonic developmental arrest during IVF treatment is one of the limitations in achieving this goal. Chromosomal abnormalities are possibly linked with chromosomal arrest and selection against abnormal fe...

BACKGROUND The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of Follicular-Fluid Meiosis Activating Sterol (FF-MAS) when added to the culture media on the incidence of chromosomal abnormalities and pre-embryo development in human pre-embryos. METHODS 243 women undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment donated 353 oocytes in a multicentre, prospective, randomized, double blind, four-arm, controlled...

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and Screening (PGD/PGS) for monogenic diseases and/or numerical/structural chromosomal abnormalities is a tool for embryo testing aimed at identifying nonaffected and/or euploid embryos in a cohort produced during an IVF cycle. A critical aspect of this technology is the potential detrimental effect that the biopsy itself can have upon the embryo. Different emb...

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is the examination in vitro of an embryo (or an egg cell prior to fertilisation) in order to exclude a genetic condition in case a very high risk of that condition is known. PGD can only be used in combination with in vitro fertilisation (IVF). If a genetic abnormality in the form of a monogenetic disease such as Huntington’s disease or cystic fibrosis o...

Static exposure experiments were conducted to assess the toxicity of dispersed Prudhoe Bay Crude Oil (PBCO) to embryos of the topsmelt (Atherinops affinis). Treatment with the dispersant COREXIT 9500 resulted in greater hydrocarbon concentrations in chemically enhanced water-accommodated fractions (CEWAFs) of oil, relative to the untreated water-accommodated fractions (WAFs). Topsmelt embryo de...

Embryo transfer (ET) is universally recognized as the final and most critical stage in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcome (Neithardt et al., 2005; Ghazzawi et al., 1999). The majority of couples (approximately 80%) who undergo IVF reach the embryo transfer stage, yet few pregnancies occur (Mansour & Aboulghar, 2002; Adamson et al., 2006). Although embryo genetic abnormalities (Munne et al....