New research has challenged the prevailing belief that the higher proportion of male babies born in the general population results from a higher proportion of males being conceived. The conclusions suggest that embryonic death is bound up with the embryo’s sex in ways that are not yet fully understood.
Tag: embryo
Safety First: MPs Are In a Quandary Over a Vote on a New IVF Technique
It has been a long-standing rule in fertility treatment that no
scientist should attempt to modify the genes of a human embryo if that
modification can be passed on to subsequent generations through the
“germline” – the eggs and sperm of the future person. Now Parliament is
about to consider another form of germline modification, so-called
“three-parent embryos”, this time involving the genes of the
mitochondria, described as the tiny “power packs” of the cell, which
exist outside the nucleus.
European Court Rules Parthenotes Fall Outside Human Embryo Patent Ban
The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has cleared the way for the patenting of human parthenotes for industrial and commercial purposes, clarifying the definition of ‘human embryo’ excluded from patentability in European Law.
Culture Characteristics Not Associated with Birthweight from Assisted Reproduction
1. The type of culture media and the duration of embryo culture were not associated with changes in birthweight in singletons born using assisted reproductive technologies (ART).2. These findings contradict previous studies.
Researchers Reconstruct Early Stages of Embryo Development
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have managed to reconstruct the early stage of mammalian development using embryonic stem cells, showing that a critical mass of cells – not too few, but not too many – is needed for the cells to being self-organising into the correct structure for an embryo to form.
Hiring a Woman for Her Womb
People unable to bear children have increasingly turned to women who bear children for them, often by transferring an embryo created by in-vitro fertilization. Because legal and social views on surrogacy vary from nation to nation (and even state to state), prospective parents often engage surrogates in the United States and in developing countries. Controversy has clouded this issue.
Risks of Twins, Triplets May Prompt IVF Patients to Opt for Singletons
A new study bolsters the argument that fertility doctors should transfer just one embryo at a time when they are trying to help women give birth.
Senate Lifts Restrictions On IVF Embryo Screenings
Parliament has decided in principle to ease restrictions on embryo screenings as part of a reform of the law on reproductive medicine.
An Embryonic Cell’s Fate is Sealed by the Speed of a Signal
When embryonic cells get the signal to specialize the call can come quickly. Or it can arrive slowly. Now, new research from Rockefeller University suggests the speed at which a cell in an embryo receives that signal has an unexpected influence on that cell’s fate. Until now, only concentration of the chemical signals was thought to matter in determining if the cell would become, for example, muscle, skin, brain or bone.
Gene Crucial For Embryo Implantation Discovered; May Offer Important Insight Into Variety Of Infertility Issues
A study led by researchers from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has identified a crucial molecular key to healthy embryo implantation and pregnancy. The gene, called Wnt5a, was found to be absolutely critical for the healthy embryo implantation in the uterus wall, according to a press release.