Internalization of cellular fragments in a human embryo: time-lapse recordings

Abstract

An observation is reported of internalization of a cellular fragment into a blastomere from a human embryo, as documented by time-lapse photography. The fragment, created during the first mitotic cleavage was reabsorbed into one of the mother blastomeres in less than 5 min. The time-lapse sequence, shown here as a series of still photographs, provides the first direct evidence that cellular fragments in human embryos can 'disappear' during the culture period, a phenomenon that is common in human IVF. The time-lapse sequence itself may be viewed on the internet at www.rbmonline.com/Article/633.

A randomized clinical trial comparing embryo culture in a conventional incubator with a time-lapse incubator

“…There is a well-documented correlation between embryo morphology evaluated at certain time-points and embryo competence as reviewed in a recent consensus paper by ALPHA and ESHRE [16]. However, the progressive and dynamic nature of cell cleavage and embryo development is also well known [13,18,30], and embryo scoring can change markedly within few hours [25]. In conventional morphological evaluation of embryo quality the number and duration of inspections outside the incubator must be restricted since changes in environment are known to induce stress [42].…”

Morphokinetic parameters of early embryo development via time lapse monitoring and their effect on embryo selection and ICSI outcomes: a prospective cohort study

“…The target was to explore the dynamics of an embryo to implant successfully along with its various cleavage patterns and characteristics, by observing it at various stages of development [12,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Recent studies reported information on the association of the type of fertilization [22], the IVF protocol used [23], female obesity [24], and smoking [25] on embryo kinetics and development.…”

Embryos cultured in a time-lapse system result in superior treatment outcomes: a strict matched pair analysis

“…The first clinically relevant application of TLS for use in the embryology laboratory was reported in 1994 where the events of fertilisation were studied using a custom-made imaging system comprising a microscope, enabled with Nomarski DIC optics, a video recorder and a switching box (Inoué and Inoué, 1994). Regarding preimplantation embryonic development, the first report of internalisation of fragments was published (Hardarson et al., 2002) followed by a report of mouse embryo collapse analysed using time-lapse photography (Niimura, 2003). Focus turned to the use of TLS in a clinical setting, quite abruptly, in 2008 with a number of publications exclusively studying preimplantation embryonic development using TLS and how the information these systems provided could be used to determine embryo viability (Arav et al, 2008;Lemmen, Agerholm, Ziebe, 2008;Mio and Maeda, 2008).…”