varoblog

(cz) Scientists say it is highly unlikely same-sex couples would be able to use lab-created egg and sperm as a way to create their own biological child.
And despite advances, it could be 20 years before the science can routinely create human pregnancies, a global team of researchers and ethicists has said.
There are high hopes so-called artificial gametes could be used by those who find themselves infertile.
But the ethical debate is far ahead of the science, the Hinxton Group warns.
The consortium of scientists, academics and lawyers from 14 countries say it is nonetheless vital that the public and policy makers engage with a field which has the power to spark such controversy.
Artificial gametes are sperm and eggs created from stem cells. There are a variety of potential sources, including early embryos left-over from IVF to cells taken from the skin or bone marrow of a would-be parent.
In the UK, legislation currently allows artificial gametes in research, but bans it for creating a human pregnancy.
However, amendments which would lift this ban - if and when the science was ready - have been tabled to a major fertility bill which is about to go before parliament. more…

From: »BBC News«

(sz) Scientists at The Jackson Laboratory are making major advancements in in-vitro fertilization techniques and hope to license the technology and make it commercially available, according to lab officials.
As a boost to this effort, Jackson Lab has received a Maine Technology Institute grant that will help fund research toward creating a standardized, automated system for in-vitro fertilization.
The grant for $12,500 is small by Jackson Lab standards — the lab received more than $50 million from the National Institutes of Health in 2007 — but the implications of the grant help illustrate a point that business leaders and government officials have been saying for years. Because of groundbreaking work being done at Maine firms such as Jackson Lab and Idexx Laboratories in Westbrook, among others, the state has the potential to become a global leader in the field of biotechnology, they have said.
Jackson Lab, known worldwide for its research in using mice to study the genetic causes of human disease, in 2006 spun off its first for-profit entity, Bar Harbor Biotechnology in Trenton, which manufactures genetic profile kits used in disease research. The research the MTI grant will help pay for could result in the lab spinning off another commercial enterprise that would be based in Maine, according to lab officials.
According to Shane Beckim, program associate at MTI, the grant will help fund six to nine months of fertilization research at the lab. more…

From: »Bangor Daily News«

(cz) IVF pregnancy rates could double and the incidence of serious complications, such as miscarriage and pre-eclampsia, could be halved thanks to a new procedure developed at the University of Adelaide.
Researchers have created a formula which will help embryos better survive their five days out of the womb, and help the foetus and placenta develop more normally.
The head of the research teams, Claire Roberts said today the development, which has been successful in mice, was “absolutely fantastic” and could change the face of fertility treatments.
“This is just fabulous,” she said. “The molecules we are using in this culture are universal across all mammals so I feel very confident this will translate well to humans.”
Associate Professor Roberts has been awarded a $294,750 Federal Government grant to demonstrate that the treatment is safe and improves pregnancy outcomes and the postnatal health of babies.
Human trials are expected to begin with two years and if successful, could eventually help the 15 per cent of couples in first world countries who are either infertile or suffer from recurrent miscarriages, the university said. more…

From: »Sydney Morning Herald«

(sz) Using oral contraceptives before attempting IVF can allow women and their physicians to better know the timing of ovulation. Cynthia Graber reports.
In vitro fertilization efforts can be helped by, oddly enough, oral contraceptives. That’s the finding from Tel Aviv University, site of the largest study on using birth control to help IVF.
One of the challenges to IVF is timing. Current hormone treatments to stimulate ovulation have to coincide with a particular moment in the woman’s cycle. Not knowing the exact timing for scheduling the egg retrieval and fertilization can be stressful, which can lower the odds of success. In the Tel Aviv study, researchers looked at women who underwent a 12 to 17 day treatment of oral contraception. The women were checked to make sure there was absolutely no activity in their ovaries or uterus. Then they began stimulation hormones to start the clock. Women who went through this protocol had similar numbers of pregnancies to a control group that didn’t use birth control. Which means that oral contraception didn’t harm their ability to conceive.
The researchers say that this treatment demands a slightly longer cycle and higher levels of ovulation-inducing hormones. But they also say it could allow couples to more accurately plan for procedures, which might be give couples more peace of mind. more…

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From: »Scientific American«

(sz) A milder form of fertility treatment that is safer for women also results in higher quality embryos that are more likely to develop successfully inside the mother, according to researchers who compared the method with conventional methods. They say the technique, which is cheaper because it uses lower doses of hormone-mimicking drugs, should be used more widely by fertility clinics.
In conventional IVF doctors begin by massively stimulating the woman’s ovaries to produce 10 or more eggs. When these are mixed with sperm this gives the doctors plenty of choice about which embryos to implant back into the womb. But the new study suggests that many of these embryos will be genetically defective and so will not develop. Even under natural conditions around 30% of early embryos do not progress to the foetus stage because of genetic abnormalities.
“It has always been thought that the more eggs the better. We like to have a nice assortment of embryos to choose from,” said Dr Esther Baart, an embryologist at the University Medical Centre in Utrecht who carried out the study. But her research suggests that the number of normal eggs is about the same as those delivered by the gentle technique even though the total drops from around 12 to around eight. more…

From: »The Guardian«

(sz) A retrospective analysis conducted at a large infertility center evaluated pregnancy outcomes for 225 donor egg recipients
A retrospective analysis of anonymous oocyte (egg) donation cycles, comparing the pregnancy outcomes between vaginally-administered progesterone versus intramuscular (IM) progesterone injections, demonstrates that vaginally-administered progesterone and IM progesterone achieve equal pregnancy outcomes, according to data presented by Brian Berger, MD, Boston IVF, at the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society annual meeting in Rancho Mirage, CA. The retrospective study was supported by a grant from Columbia Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRX).
“We found no significant differences in pregnancy outcomes between patients treated with vaginal progesterone versus progesterone administered intramuscularly,” said Dr. Berger. “Further, vaginal progesterone has the added advantage of avoiding painful intramuscular injections.”
In 225 egg donor cycles, 105 patients received vaginally-administered progesterone (CRINONE® 8% (a bioadhesive progesterone gel)) and 120 received IM progesterone. The implantation rate was 43.8% for vaginal progesterone versus 37.1% for IM progesterone (p=0.175). Recipients treated with vaginal progesterone achieved a 58.1% pregnancy rate and a 51.4% delivery rate, versus a 53.3% pregnancy rate (p=0.503) and a 48.3% delivery rate (p=0.689) for patients receiving IM progesterone. The pregnancy loss rate was 10.5% for patients using vaginal progesterone and 10.8% for IM progesterone users (p=1.00).
“This study clearly demonstrates that vaginal progesterone gel achieves the same pregnancy outcomes as progesterone administered via an intramuscular injection. This is important confirmation that CRINONE® 8% offers patients an efficacious and more convenient option for providing progesterone support in infertility treatment,” Berger added.
Boston IVF is one of America’s most successful fertility centers, providing patients with unparalleled medical care and the best experience with the expertise of premier doctors and professional staff, who are affiliated with Harvard Medical School. It is world renowned for its highly successful and innovative infertility treatments, highest quality service, state-of-the-art methods, ongoing scientific research, and on-site complementary healthcare at its Domar Center. more…

From: »Columbia Laboratories / BusinessWire« (press release)

(cz) Pantec Biosolutions reports promising preclinical in vitro data in support of the company’s novel Please intraepidermal drug delivery platform.
Pantec Biosolutions has achieved further important milestones in the replacement of injection-based therapies with painless needle-free transdermal systems In vitro permeation proof-of-principle studies with a series of small and large molecular weight therapeutics, demonstrate that Please (painless laser epidermal system) significantly increases drug transport of poorly and non-permeating therapeutic agents.
Proof-of-principle, according to Yogeshvar Kalia, (school of pharmaceutical sciences, University of Geneva and scientific advisor to Pantec Biosolutions), “means cumulative drug permeation that is at least equivalent to delivery from the existing dosage form, e.g, by subcutaneous injection”.
The company has completed in vitro permeation studies with several key hormones in its primary focus area of in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
The results formed the basis of collaboration agreements with a pharmaceuticals company and a patch development and manufacturing company.
Development of transdermal patch systems, optimised for use with the Please technology, is underway with clinical results expected in 2009. more…

From: »laboratorytalk«

(wz) A lack of sperm donations at HCMC’s premier fertility center has left infertile couples desperate to conceive by any means necessary.
Ho Chi Minh City’s leading fertility center in the Tu Du Obstetric Hospital reports that it’s facing a severe lack of donor sperm for couples and single women trying to become pregnant.
According to doctors at the hospital’s InfertilityDepartment, the amount of viable sperm available has been lacking since the sperm bank first opened its doors in 2005.
Dr. Le Tan Canh says that traditional Vietnamese society is generally unfamiliar with the process of sperm donation and there is a marked lack of public education and awareness about the issue.
“In other countries, sperm donation is publicized like blood donation. If people care about those who suffer from infertility, the situation needs to improve,” he added.
Dr. Ho Manh Tuong, meanwhile, says most Vietnamese men are reluctant to donate sperm because they may be embarrassed or discouraged by what they believe to be complicated procedures.
Doctors report that the situation is getting worse as more couples than ever before are reporting infertility problems and seeking donor sperm.
According to Dr. Vuong Thi Ngoc Lan, one in every six couples of reproductive age now suffers from infertility and around 110 couples are in need of donor sperm every month. more…

From: »Thanh Nien News«

(cz) Molecular Biometrics Uses NIR Spectroscopy to Detect Embryo Viability by Creating Metabolic Profiles
While viewing an exhibit of Monet’s impressionistic paintings, Jim Posillico, Ph.D., president and CEO at Molecular Biometrics in Chester, NJ, noted the similarity of the art with his company’s metabolomics platform.
Like the discrete brush strokes, textures, and colors that interact to form an impressionistic image, “metabolomics looks at the bigger picture from its constituent parts,” Dr. Posillico explains. The individual pieces of information in metabolomics are molecular biomarkers in biological samples, which give an accurate diagnostic profile of a biological condition or state of cellular activity.
The technology platform at Molecular Biometrics combines metabolomics with near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The company’s lead product, ViaTest-E™, tests the viability of embryos at in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics to increase the chance for a successful pregnancy. The test uses NIR spectroscopy to detect biomarkers of oxidative metabolism that strongly correlate with embryo viability.
The groundwork for the company’s biospectroscopy-based metabolomics platform was done in the laboratory of chemist David Burns, Ph.D., at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Dr. Burns and Dr. Posillico, an endocrinologist, cofounded Molecular Biometrics in 2005 and licensed five broad patents from McGill University, which cover applications of metabolomics and different forms of spectroscopy to different medical conditions including fetal development and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. more…

From: »Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News«

(sz) Research at Fertility Center of Las Vegas Finds Innovative Breakthrough for Increasing IVF Pregnancy Rates – Getting the Embryo “in sync” With the Endometrium
The January 2008 issue of the nations preeminent journal of reproductive medicine, Fertility & Sterility, featured a research article by Dr. Bruce Shapiro and Dr. Said Daneshmand of the Fertility Center of Las Vegas. That article, titled “Contrasting patterns in in vitro fertilization pregnancy rates among fresh autologous, fresh oocyte donor, and cryopreserved cycles using day 5 or day 6 blastocysts may reflect differences in embryo-endometrium synchrony”, points out how pregnancy rates in IVF cycles can be strongly influenced by endometrial receptivity.
Specifically, the research finds that many slowly developing embryos fail to implant because they tend to miss the endometrium’s receptive phase because the endometrium is advanced by ovarian stimulation. Heretofore, it was commonly assumed that slow embryos were less viable. Now it seems they are only out of synchrony with the endometrium.
The salient point of this research was to show that the reduced pregnancy rate with slow embryos, specifically day 6 blastocysts, only appeared in fresh non-donor cycles. The effect disappeared in cycles using thawed embryos and in cycles of egg donation. Interestingly, it only appeared in cycles where the woman receiving the transferred embryos had just undergone ovarian stimulation. more…

From: »NewsReleaseWire« (press release)