varoblog

(sz) Scientists are working on a microfluidic chip that may help automate the first stages of pregnancy, such as fertilisation of sperm and eggs. Teruo Fujii of the University of Tokyo in Japan and his colleagues hope that they will eventually create a fully automated artificial uterus in which egg and sperm are fed in at one end and an early embryo comes out the other, ready for implanting in a real mother.
The researchers believe that such a device can improve the success rate of in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
“While there have been many advances in the production of in vitro embryos, these embryos are still sub-optimal [compared] to their in vivo counterparts,” says Matt Wheeler of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign who is also working on automated IVF systems.
He says that one of the reasons for this is that during IVF, eggs or embryos are often moved or washed with culture fluid, causing changes in temperature and pH.
With a view to tackling these problems, Fuji and his colleagues created a “lab on a chip”, two millimetres across and 0.5 millimetres high, in which up to 20 eggs can be fertilised and then grown until they are ready for implantation. more…

From: »ZeeNews« (India)

(wz) Frozen ova may be the ‘bright new dawn in reproductive medicine’, writes Amanda Hooton. But we mustn’t count our chickens too soon.
Early last year, a baby was born in Melbourne as a result of assisted reproductive technology. Many people described the birth as miraculous, a word used a fair bit in this field. Even so, this one was something special.
It was the result of a frozen egg, fertilised by a frozen sperm, forming an embryo that was also frozen before being transferred to the mother. As Lyndon Hale, chairman of Melbourne IVF puts it: “that bloody kid was frozen so many times…” The ellipsis is where the miracle occurred.
On a US website, women are hoping for the same miracle. “It is a fantastic feeling to know I’ve done what I can to preserve my fertility,” writes Megan, a 36-year-old classical acupuncturist who elected to freeze her eggs until she is “emotionally and financially prepared” for motherhood.
She froze her eggs with Extend Fertility, a company founded in 2003 (by a female MBA graduate in her mid-30s, who promptly froze her own eggs). The idea behind Extend Fertility, and similar companies, is that a woman can halt her biological clock by freezing her eggs. When she decides to become a mother, she can then utilise them via normal IVF. more…

From: »Stuff.co.nz« (New Zealand)

(sz) The Economist, bless it, is trying to put our fears at rest about the declining population - declining, that is, in prosperous bits of the world like ours. Its cover this week shows a Japanese baby who looks as if he is going to cry - I suspect dirty work on the part of the photographer - and with good reason.
By 2030 it seems there will be only two Japanese of working age for every pensioner, which means that he will be working all the hours God sends to keep his parents and grandparents (Japanese grannies are all but immortal) in pensions.
Not that we can laugh. The European population is significantly below the replacement rate of 2.1 for each woman of childbearing age - in Europe as a whole it’s about 1.5 children, with Britain a little above the average.
And you know what that means, don’t you. We’re going to have to work until we’re about 80 to keep ourselves in drink and cigarettes, because our state pensions won’t be enough. Unless, of course, you’re in the public sector, in which case it’s business as usual with retirement at 60. more…

From: »The Sunday Times«

(sz) If a country wants to keep its population up, it should promote IVF
Infertility is normally seen as a private matter. If a couple are infertile and wish they were not, that is sad. But there is understandable resistance in many countries to the idea that treatments intended to deal with this sadness—known collectively as assisted reproductive technologies, or ARTs—should be paid for out of public funds. Such funds are scarce, and infertility is not a life-threatening condition.
However, two papers presented to the “State of the ART” conference held earlier this month in Lyon argue that in Europe, at least, there may be a public interest in promoting ARTs after all. The low fertility rate in many of that continent’s more developed countries means their populations are ageing and shrinking. If governments want to change this, ARTs—most significantly in-vitro fertilisation (IVF)—could offer at least part of a way to do so.
As the conference heard, IVF does seem to be keeping up the numbers in at least one country. Tina Jensen of the University of Southern Denmark has just finished a study of more than 700,000 Danish women. She found that young women in Denmark have a significantly lower natural conception rate than in past decades. That is partly, but not entirely, because they are having their children later in life. The rest of the cause is unknown, though reduced sperm quality in men may be a factor. Whatever the cause, she also found that the effect has been almost completely compensated for by an increasing use of ARTs. Denmark’s native population is more or less stable, but some 3.9% of babies born there in 2003 (the most recent year for which figures are available) were the result of IVF. The comparable figure for another northern European country, Britain, was 1.5%. more…

From: »The Economist« (from the print edition)

(cz) India’s [ed.] Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo today outlined new measures to help the NHS improve childless couples’ access to IVF treatment. Following on from the NICE guideline on fertility, published in 2004, which recommended up to three cycles of IVF for eligible patients, the Department of Health is working with leading infertility patient group Infertility Network UK to assist PCTs in giving consideration to fertility treatment and improve access.
This work will include:
* developing, in partnership with the NHS, social access criteria for IVF treatment to ensure a standardised approach across the country for deciding which couples are eligible for treatment;
* producing best practice guidance for PCTs, so that those struggling to provide enough cycles to patients can learn from other PCTs that are successfully implementing the NICE recommendations;
* the Department of Health has also announced that it will begin monitoring IVF provision across the country to help identify where the NHS may need further assistance. more…

From: »SpiritIndia«