August 8, 2011

expert reaction to Nature Communications paper on predicting successful development of fertilised mouse eggs

Scientists from the University of Cambridge demonstrated a technique in mice that could be used to select the best embryos during IVF treatment.

Dr Jane Stewart, British Fertility Society spokesperson and consultant gynaecologist at Newcastle Fertility Centre, said:

“Egg quality is fundamental to the success of both natural conception and the success of fertility treatments. In IVF the selection of the “best” embryo to replace remains key to live birth success but clinical approaches to this are not sophisticated. This work adds to our understanding of how “good” eggs may function in the mouse model. Whilst work remains to be done before it could be extrapolated into the clinical IVF setting, this study contributes to our basic understanding of reproductive physiology in a way which may ultimately enhance the ability to select that successful embryo more readily.”

Dr Allan Pacey, Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield, said:

“In IVF there are currently no satisfactory methods to predict which fertilised eggs will develop into good quality embryos apart from waiting for several days to see what happens. Whilst we could look at biochemical changes (such as calcium movements) using special dyes, this would preclude us subsequently using these embryos in treatment for fear that the dye might cause health problems in any children born. Therefore this study suggests a very interesting non-invasive method to predict the developmental capacity of fertilised eggs. The experiments are elegant and well conducted. Clearly the technique of performing Particle Image Velocimetry is complex and will need to be simplified or automated for use in a busy IVF lab. This is the biggest hurdle I anticipate that might prevent more people experimenting with this approach. But I hope they do, as we really need to develop something more technical than the ‘watch and wait’ approach we have currently.”

Dr Susan Avery, British Fertility Society spokesperson and clinical embryologist at Birmingham Women’s Hospital, said:

“This is a fascinating piece of work, and any information that might help to identify developmental potential in human eggs, and hence render IVF treatment more efficient, is welcome. This study may not be easy to translate into clinical use, as this would require detailed additional observations which can be detrimental to human eggs and embryos in culture. However, if this issue could be overcome, it may ultimately be a useful addition to the selection criteria for human embryos.”

‘Rhythmic actomyosin-driven contractions induced by sperm entry predict mammalian embryo viability’, by Anna Ajduk et al., published in Nature Communications on 9th August 2011.