Automating Conception
(sz) Test tubes make lousy wombs. Now comes a device that nurtures embryos like the real deal.
Since the 1978 birth of Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) has produced approximately three million infants worldwide. Although success rates continually improve, the science of making babies in the lab is still hit-or-miss. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that less than 29 percent of IVF attempts result in the successful birth of a child.
Those rates could soon soar, thanks to an innovation by fertility researchers at the University of Tokyo. Teruo Fujii and his colleagues have invented a plastic chip-like incubator that nurtures early embryos like a real womb does. Currently, IVF eggs mature while resting on the floor of a petri dish, a very unwomb-like environment. “We wanted to culture embryos in an environment that is closer to what happens inside the body,” Fujii says.
The team’s research began with mice, but in March, they graduated to human embryos. While they have yet to implant any of the human embryos, results from the rodent experiments are promising: The team has successfully incubated up to 88 percent of early embryos.
The ultimate goal, Fujii says, is to perfect an artificial micro-uterus that fuses egg and sperm—and easily produces healthy, ready-to-implant human embryos. Such a device could benefit many of the estimated 1.2 million women who visit fertility doctors every year. more…
From: »Popular Science Magazine«