标签： fertility clinics

New embryo selection method: Zinc ‘fireworks’

Last modified: 30 4 月, 2016

According to the new research published in Scientific Reports journal Zinc ‘fireworks’ could help subfertile couples for a successful IVF treatment.

It has been previously found in animal studies that zinc is an essential element for the oocyte maturation and activation. In fact, zinc is released in great amounts in oocytes at the moment of fertilisation, a phenomenon termed as the ‘’zinc spark’’.   This event was initially observed in mouse oocytes, indicating a crucial role of zinc in fertilisation process.

Now, for the first time, scientists managed to capture this light spark, related to zinc release, emitted this very moment a human sperm cell meets the egg. The zinc release taking place during fertilization, due to sperm binding to the egg, emits light in radiant bursts. The scientists had the chance to watch, from a recorded video, billions of zinc atoms to be released the moment the sperm cell penetrates the egg’s membrane. These zinc ‘’fireworks’’ lasted for about 2 hours after fertilisation.

The discovery from the scientists of Northwestern Medicine could give to fertility clinics a new non-invasive technique for selecting the best egg quality.

The most interesting part of the study, as reported by the research team from the University of Northwestern, is that some eggs appear to be brighter than others having a more intense ‘’zinc spark’’. This fact is indicative of their quality and ability to develop into a healthy embryo. According to study results, the percentage of successful embryo selection was more than doubled when correlated to the zinc spark amplitude.

Collectively, this study provided robust evidence that zinc spark is a hallmark of egg activation in mammals, including humans, and therefore could make a clinical tool for predicting which embryos could reach the blastocyst level. The discovery from scientists of Northwestern Medicine could give to fertility clinics a new non-invasive technique for selecting the best egg quality.

So, according to fertility experts the ‘’zinc spark’’ event has the potential to be a new embryo selection method for subfertile couples by increasing the chances of getting pregnant through IVF procedure. Such news give hope to couples struggling with infertility as it is known that about 50% of fertilized eggs through IVF in fertility clinics, fail to develop into a healthy embryo due to genetic abnormalities.

 

Hey! If you found this post interesting or useful, you can help us get even better by subscribing to our newsletter. Just write your email and you’ll have the latest news regarding fertility issues. Thank you once more for your help.

Traveling abroad for Sex Selection

Last modified: 27 4 月, 2016
sex selection

At the moment very few countries permits gender selection for non medical reasons

Thanks to the advances in fertility treatments that allow doctors to identify male and female embryos, sex selection of your baby is technically possible. More couples consider such an option now and a number of them are willing to go for it no matter the cost. As a matter of fact, a significant number of Australian couples travel to US every year to get this done. That’s a fact that has now made Australia to ponder sex selection.
Sex selection used to be an option only for couples who wanted to avoid passing sex-linked genetic disorders to their children. This has now changed since this option might also appeal to parents who have children of one sex and want to have a child of the other sex, what is commonly called “family balancing”. However, it is not always easy for parents since options aren’t equally effective, affordable, or available.
At the moment very few countries permits gender selection for non medical reasons, between them US, South Africa and Thailand. According to infertility doctor Daniel Potter Australian couples are looking towards the US for sex selective IVF technique and that has doubled in five years. Around 15 to 20 Australian couples visit his clinics in Southern California each month. “Typically it is women wanting to have a daughter, that’s 80 per cent of what we do,” he mentioned. The cost to get this procedure done is estimated to $15,000 per treatment, excluding the travel and accommodation costs.
This has sparked a debate whether the government should legalize the practice in the country since Australians are already selecting the sex of their children, but they are forced to go to overseas clinics, in places like the US or Thailand. Experts comment that this could be risky, because “not all international fertility clinics have the same standard of care that exists in Australia’’. Due to the rise in treatment, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is presently running a consultation about proposed changes to the existing law on sex-selective IVF. The fertility experts from US are also invited to speak on the controversial issue of sex selection in Australia.

Some people argue that gender selection process will eventually come to other genetic traits selection. Would you agree with them?

Hey! If you found this post interesting or useful, you can help us get even better by subscribing to our newsletter. Just write your email and you’ll have the latest news regarding fertility issues. Thank you once more for your help.