varoblog

(cz) The FDA has approved Ferring Pharmaceuticals’ Endometrin (progesterone) 100 mg vaginal insert to support in vitro fertilization and assisted reproductive technology (ART). Intravaginal progesterone facilitates embryo implantation and early pregnancy by supplementing corpus luteal function as part of ART treatment in infertile women. It is an alternative to current forms of progesterone supplementation, which are necessary to increase endometrial receptivity for embryo implantation and to support early pregnancy. more…

From: »Facts and Comparisons« (press release)

(wz) Ova banks—a process and technique of freezing human ovum (eggs) for future use has finally come in India, courtesy Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital. Sonal Shukla takes a look at the possibilities for women offered through this concept
A recent World Health Organisation survey indicates that there are roughly 20 million infertile couples in India. In another case, it was noticed that although the success rate for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) is 20-25 per cent, it is only 10 to 12 per cent for intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Considering these figures, it is the need of the hour to have an ova bank that can allow women to postpone motherhood at a later date or offer solutions for women struggling with reproductive problems. As an answer to this, Lilavati Hospital, in 2006, started the first ever ova bank in India. more…

From: »Expresshealthcare« (India)

(sz) Children born after embryo biopsy for preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) do not show any more major malformations than those born after artificial reproduction technologies (ART) without PGD, as reported at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today. Professor Ingeborg Liebaers, from the Research Centre for Reproductive Genetics, Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium, says that the results of her study of 583 children born after PGD was reassuring.
PGD is a new option for couples at risk of transmitting genetic diseases. Instead of carrying out a prenatal diagnosis followed by a termination of pregnancy, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (where a sperm is injected directly into an egg) is performed, followed by genetic testing of the embryos. Only unaffected embryos are subsequently transferred to the womb. more…

From: »Medical News today«

(sz) Scottish scientists have found a way to harvest embryonic stem cells from eggs which have been discarded after IVF because they were unviable. The discovery will increase the supply of vital stem cells available for research into illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes. It could also overcome some of the major ethical objections to stem cell research. The breakthrough was announced yesterday by Roslin Cells Ltd, a spin-off company established in 2006 by the Roslin Institute.
The Edinburgh scientists took eggs which had failed to fertilise properly during IVF, and thus had no chance of developing into a viable embryo. The team developed techniques to stimulate them, so they divide and develop. They then harvested embryonic stem cells, which can be used for research into liver disease, motor neuron disease and other conditions. Their work may lead to improvements in IVF technology, which will benefit infertile couples.
The discovery was announced in Australia, at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Dr Paul De Sousa, Roslin Cells’ chief scientific officer, said: “Typically up to 30% of eggs in an IVF treatment cycle will be unusable as they fail to fertilise or do so abnormally. “These eggs could not develop into a viable embryo and are normally discarded in routine IVF treatment.
“Until now, it was thought they are also incapable of producing embryonic stem cells. But what we have done here is found ways to recover’ embryos from these eggs which have failed to fertilise.” more…

From: »The Herald« (UK)

(sz) After plodding along at a snail’s pace over the past five years, stem-cell research—at least the scientific side of it—took a few bold steps forward Wednesday. As Congress gets set to vote on legislation that would expand federal funding for the field to include studies on excess IVF embryos, researchers in the U.S. and Japan announced exciting advances in their ability to turn back the clock on older, adult cells and get them to generate embryonic stem cells. The findings could expand the ways that doctors and patients eventually generate customized stem cells for treatments.
The work, published in the journals Nature and Cell Stem Cell, represent true milestones, not only in the field of stem-cell research, but in the broader discipline of early biological development. Led by Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, one group successfully coaxed a mouse skin cell to reverse its development and return to an embryonic stage at which it produced stem cells. Two other groups, based at Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT, obtained similar results working independently. In the final paper, Kevin Eggan, also at HSCI, showed that even fertilized mouse zygotes at the one-cell stage can be reprogrammed to generate stem cells. Previously, biologists had believed that once fertilized embryos embarked on the developmental path, they could not be manipulated to produce stem cells. more…

From: »Time«

(wz) When IVF began 25 years or so ago, the aim was to help women to have babies. It was not the intention to create excess embryos, but this is now a routine consequence of IVF. There are hundreds of surplus embryos in frozen storage throughout the country, and the number is steadily increasing.
Although embryo research is an obvious option for surplus frozen embryos, this has proved to be a controversial and divisive issue. It seems everyone, including George Pell, has something to say about embryo research. However, there are two groups we don’t hear much from — people who have to make decisions about their spare embryos and those who would dearly love to get them.
According to Victorian law, embryos that are no longer required can be stored for a maximum of five years. Inevitably there comes a time when people who have completed IVF treatment must decide what to do with their surplus embryos.
In Australia, people are generally given three options for surplus embryos. They can choose between discarding their embryos, donating them to people who are infertile or donating their embryos to research. This last option became available in 2003.
Interviews with couples completing IVF show that many people agonise about what to do with their surplus embryos. These difficulties are underpinned by conflicts stemming from religious, social, emotional and moral factors.
Studies show that most people described not wanting to “waste” their surplus embryos. They wanted to “help people” by donating their embryos. However, in reality, this often proved too hard. more…

From: »The Age / Fairfax digital« (Australia)

(sz) Embryos that are selected out as abnormal can undergo chromosomal modifications, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today. (June, 19th – ed.)
Ms Tsvia Frumkin, from the Racine IVF unit, LIS Maternity Hospital, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Centre, Tel Aviv, Israel, will tell the conference that her team’s findings meant that the results of preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) for chromosomal abnormalities were not always reliable and should be interpreted with caution.
PGS is offered to women with recurrent IVF failures as well as repeated miscarriages. It is based on the concept that the entire chromosomal constitution of an embryo can be represented by a single cell, which is removed from the embryo. If one biopsied cell is found to be abnormal, there is a 90% chance that the rest of the embryo is also abnormal or mosaic, where two or more cells with different chromosomal constitution exist in a single embryo.
Ms Frumkin analysed 8 cell embryos at day 3 of development using the FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) technique. Two cells from each embryo were analysed, and between 5 and 9 chromosomes were investigated. The abnormal embryos were re-analysed on day 5, using the same method. “By comparing FISH results of day 5 embryos to the abnormal results of the same embryos on day 3, we could elucidate the origin of the chromosomal aberrations and follow different chromosomal modifications as they occurred during preimplantation period. The timing is significant because embryos used in IVF are normally transferred at between 3 and 5 days old”, says Ms Frumkin. more…

From: » News-Medical.Net«

(cz) A small British run alternative health clinic in Southern Spain has achieved a considerable level of success in helping women become pregnant, both when using IVF and without, which fits in with other research into the phenomenon world wide.
A team from Soroka University, Israel, found that in a control group, 28% of women who were hypnotised became pregnant, compared with 14% of those who were not. The study of 185 women was presented to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Berlin. http://www.eliteclinics.com/IVF.html
The Chinese had noticed several thousand years ago that women who had difficulty conceiving often had an underlying emotional issue preventing conception. Modern studies have now confirmed that psychological and emotional blocks can create infertility issues. There may be subconscious fears around pregnancy, labour, childbirth, hospitals, medical treatments, motherhood, loss of independence or individuality, questions about their husband’s ability to be a good father, unresolved dysfunctional patterns from a woman’s own childhood, or even the fear that a new baby might be a threat to the relationship with her spouse.
Hypnotherapy can be a highly effective mind-body technique, often helping individuals identify and process subconscious blocks that may be interfering with conception. In a relaxed, therapeutic environment, the hypnotherapist and the individual work together to bring about positive attitudes and beliefs regarding childbirth and motherhood. more…

From: »PRblog« (press release)

(cz) The desperation of the infertile would-be mother knows no bounds. Lee Cowden, aching to conceive, was pumped full of hormones to make her produce more eggs. The result? A trip to hospital — but not to a maternity suite.
“I was 25 and felt this excruciating pain in my chest,” recalls Lee, a music therapist from Surrey. “I was rushed into intensive care in an ambulance, and it became pretty clear that, despite my age, I had suffered a heart attack.
“I’d suffered a clot caused by the fertility treatment I had undergone. I remember lying in my hospital bed, desperately worried. Not for my health, but because I thought that they’d never let me have IVF again, and I’d never become a mother.”
[...]
Louise Brown, the world’s first testtube baby, was born in 1978 and became a mother herself last year. Her son, Cameron, was conceived naturally and this was hailed in some quarters as proof that IVF really ‘works’.
Others, however, caution against attributing too much significance to this happy event. The treatment that led to Louise’s birth, they point out, was very different from today’s.
Doctors waited until one of her mother Lesley’s eggs had ripened, collected it and then fertilised it in a test tube with her husband’s sperm before replacing it in her womb.
Since then, procedures have moved on, with more than three million babies worldwide conceived through Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) — IVF, ovulation induction and intra-uterine induction.
In Britain, ART accounts for 1.4 per cent of all births every year — 10,242 in 2004 — while many more women undergo treatment unsuccessfully (the success rate among women under 35 is 28.2 per cent, falling to 10.6 per cent for those aged 40-42). more…

From: »The Daily Mail«

(sz) Scientists have created a new stem cell line from a clinically unusable human egg in a development that could have major implications for research into illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, liver disease and diabetes.
The breakthrough, by Roslin Cells Ltd, a spin out company established in 2006 by Roslin Institute, and scientists at The University of Manchester, demonstrates for the first time that eggs which are incapable of becoming viable embryos can be used as a source for stem cells.
The move could help accelerate the development of regenerative medicine, where there is currently an acute shortage of embryos available for stem cell research.
Speaking at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Australia, Dr Paul De Sousa, Principal Investigator at the University of Edinburgh’s Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Roslin Cells’s Chief Scientific Officer, said: “Typically up to 30% of eggs in an IVF treatment cycle will be unusable as they fail to fertilise or do so abnormally. These eggs could not develop into a viable embryo and are therefore normally discarded in routine IVF treatment. more…

From: »The Universitiy Of Manchester«