User:Z3292017

Lab 1 - Z3292017

Lab 1 Assessment

1. Identify the origin of In Vitro Fertilization and the 2010 nobel prize winner associated with this technique:

The origin of IVF can be dated from the late 19th Century where embryo transplantation in rabbits was discovered by Walter Heape. The development of IVF was due to a cascade of events during the 20th century. Pincus and Enzmann from Harvard University suggested the possibility that mammalian eggs are able to develop normally in vitro in 1934. In 1948 Menken and Rock exposed 138 oocytes to spermatozoa in vitro. In 1959, Change was able to provide evidence for IVF by fertilising rabbit eggs with capicated sperm and thus achieve birth. From 1965 Robert Edwards attempted to fertilise human oocytes in vitro. In 1968 Edwards successfully fertilised a human egg using a human culture media he developed. Finally after years of research and failed attempts, the first test tube baby was born in 1978. Robert Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2010 due to his immense development and contribution of IVF.

References

1. http://www.ivf-worldwide.com/ivf-history.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_fertilisation
3. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2010/

2.Identify and add a PubMed reference link to a recent paper on fertilisation and describe its key findings:

Cleavage speed and implantation potential of early cleavage embryos in IVF or ICSI cycles by Lee, Lin and Hwu (July, 2012) attempted to determine the correlation of early embryo cleavage, its speed and the potential implantation rates for IVF. Their definition of early cleavage was embryonic mitosis occurring 25-27 hours after insemination. The embryos’ (day 3) cleavage speed was assessed and rated into 3 groups: rapid (more than 9 cells), normal (7-8 cells) and slow (less than 7 cells) along with their morphological quality being either good or poor. Normal fertilisation was determined by the presence of 2 nuclei and 2 polar bodies. 25-27 hours after IVF an early cleavage examination took place to determine which embryos had already cleaved. They embryos were then examined for their quality from 66-68 hours after IVF.

Early cleavage emrbyos developed normally in comparison to non early cleavage embryos. Notably, the early cleavage embryos produced a greater amount of “good quality” embryos and subsequently the implantation rate was sufficiently greater with early cleavage embryos. This finding is of great importance as embryo morphology is the most important tool to select the best embryo to transfer andthus increase the rates of implantation, pregnancy and live birth.