The fate of embryos transferred into the uterus

Goto, Yasuo; Noda, Yoichi; Shiotani, Masahide; Kishi, Junji; Nonogaki, Takafumi; Mori, Takahide

doi:10.1007/bf01239221

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…A similar failure to establish pregnancy following premature intrauterine transfer was reported for two mouse embryos of 292 days (Goto et al 1993), and in previous small studies that described the intrauterine transfer of early in vivo derived horse embryos. For example, Weber et al (1993) achieved no pregnancies following intrauterine transfer of two horse embryos of 7 days and, while Allen & Rowson (1975) did describe a single pregnancy after transfer of three equine embryos of 5 days, the age of the embryo was estimated from daily examination for ovulation by transrectal palpation; the embryo that resulted in pregnancy could thus easily have been closer to 4 days.…”

Section: Development Of Horse Embryossupporting

confidence: 79%

Influence of the uterine environment on the development of in vitro-produced equine embryos

et al. 2012

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The necessity for early interaction between the embryo and the oviductal and/or uterine environment in the horse is reflected by several striking differences between equine embryos that develop in vivo and those produced in vitro. Better understanding of the salient interactions may help to improve the efficiency of in vitro equine embryo production. In an initial experiment, cleavage-stage in vitro-produced (IVP) equine embryos were transferred into the uterus of recipient mares that had ovulated recently to determine whether premature placement in this in vivo environment would improve subsequent development. In a second experiment, an important element of the uterine environment was mimicked by adding uterocalin, a major component of the endometrial secretions during early pregnancy, to the culture medium. Intrauterine transfer of cleavage-stage IVP equine embryos yielded neither ultrasonographically detectable pregnancies nor day 7 blastocysts, indicating that the uterus is not a suitable environment for precompact morula stage horse embryos. By contrast, exposure to uterocalin during IVP improved capsule formation, although it did not measurably affect the development or expression of a panel of genes known to differ between in vivo and in vitro embryos. Further studies are required to evaluate whether uterocalin serves purely as a carrier protein or more directly promotes improved capsule development.

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Section: Development Of Horse Embryossupporting

confidence: 79%

Influence of the uterine environment on the development of in vitro-produced equine embryos

et al. 2012

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“…By performing asynchronous transfer experiments, it was demonstrated that if older embryos were transferred into younger uteri (take mice for example, the Day 4 embryos were transferred into the Day 3 pseudopregnant uteri), the blastocysts would wait in the uteri and implantation could happen at similar time as synchronous transfer. However, if younger embryos were transferred into older uteri which had entered the receptive stage, the uteri would not wait for the embryo to develop into the blastocyst, but process into the refractory stage, and the embryo implantation could not happen [6][7][8] . The asynchronous embryo transfer experiments tell us: (i) The uterus must enter the receptive stage to initiate implantation; (ii) when the uterus enters the receptive stage, only blastocyst (not younger forms of embryos) could be accepted by the uterus; (iii) the blastocyst could wait for the uterus to become receptive but the uterus will not wait for the embryo.…”

Section: The Concept Of "Implantation Window"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The asynchronous embryo transfer experiments tell us: (i) The uterus must enter the receptive stage to initiate implantation; (ii) when the uterus enters the receptive stage, only blastocyst (not younger forms of embryos) could be accepted by the uterus; (iii) the blastocyst could wait for the uterus to become receptive but the uterus will not wait for the embryo. Usually, the time period that the uterus is receptive is called the "window" of implantation, after which the uterus enters the nonreceptive stage and becomes indifferent or hostile to the embryos [8,9] . In a pseudopregnant mouse, the uterus is receptive on Day 4 of pregnancy, turns nonreceptive during Day 5 and becomes completely refractory by the morning of Day 6 [4,9] .…”

Section: The Concept Of "Implantation Window"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Embryo implantation: A time for recalling and forwarding

et al. 2009

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The success of embryo implantation is a critical step towards further embryo development and pregnancy outcome. The observations and investigations on embryo implantation have been over a century. A huge body of knowledge has been accumulated in anatomy, histology, ultrastructure and hormonal regulation; as well as recently in depth information about molecular signaling pathways got from studies of genomic wide gene screening and specific gene deletion. The knowledge from basic research has also substantially helped to initiate and improve the Artificial Reproductive Technology (ART) in clinical applications. Now we've known that the normal embryo implantation involves the embryo's development into an implantation-competent blastocyst and the synchronized transformation of uteri into a receptive stage. The interdependent relationship between the blastocyst and uterus involves complicated hormonal regulation and local paracrine, juxtacrine interactions. In this paper, we review some important historical findings regarding uterine receptivity and blastocyst activation, as well as some less discussed topics such as embryo spacing, embryo orientation. Further understandings on detailed mechanisms during the process of embryo implantation will help cure women infertility as well as develop new generation of non-steroids contraceptives. embryo implantation, uterine receptivity, blastocyst activation, research history Pregnancy loss is a common pathological condition in human pregnancy, which is often seeded from early pregnancy around embryo implantation. The infertility issue is now drawing increasing public attention due to its worldwide social and economic impact. While the world is facing increasing population, there are still about 15% couples who could not have their children because of infertility. During the past decades, the development and clinical application of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) have conquered many infertility problems and made new hopes for thousands of infertile couples. However, the implantation rate after embryo transfer is still disappointingly low (~30%), most possibly because the transferred embryo is not synchronized with the development of uterus (or the uterus is in the nonreceptive stage) [1] . Recently, evidence from both animal models and clinical survey supports a novel concept that the success of embryo im-plantation could no longer be simply judged by "implantation or not implantation". It is now recognized that the timing of implantation is also crucial to the ongoing embryo development and final pregnancy outcome. A short delay of implantation beyond the normal implantation window would result in subsequently increased pregnancy loss [2][3][4][5] . It is the quality of embryo implantation that determines the quality of ongoing pregnancy and fetal development. In this regard, in depth researches about detailed molecular mechanisms during embryo implantation are necessary to help us conquer two worldwide problems, infertility and development of novel contrac...

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“…3 It is generally considered that transferring blastocyst-stage embryo(s) offers a higher implantation rate than transferring cleavage-stage one(s). 4 However, the occurrence of preimplantation genetic disorders also increases with the duration of extended culture of embryos. 5 Incorporating noninvasive observation of embryo development by capturing the images with a time-lapse device may allow embryologists to be more objective in scoring embryos, and hence a better selection of embryos at earlier stages for transfer or cryopreservation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microwells support high-resolution time-lapse imaging and development of preimplanted mouse embryos

et al. 2015

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A vital aspect affecting the success rate of in vitro fertilization is the culture environment of the embryo. However, what is not yet comprehensively understood is the affect the biochemical, physical, and genetic requirements have over the dynamic development of human or mouse preimplantation embryos. The conventional microdrop technique often cultures embryos in groups, which limits the investigation of the microenvironment of embryos. We report an open microwell platform, which enables micropipette manipulation and culture of embryos in defined sub-microliter volumes without valves. The fluidic environment of each microwell is secluded from others by layering oil on top, allowing for noninvasive, high-resolution time-lapse microscopy, and data collection from each individual embryo without confounding factors. We have successfully cultured mouse embryos from the two-cell stage to completely hatched blastocysts inside microwells with an 89% success rate (n ¼ 64), which is comparable to the success rate of the contemporary practice. Development timings of mouse embryos that developed into blastocysts are statistically different to those of embryos that failed to form blastocysts (p-value < 10 À10 , two-tailed Student's t-test) and are robust indicators of the competence of the embryo to form a blastocyst in vitro with 94% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Embryos at the cleavage-or blastocyst-stage following the normal development timings were selected and transferred to the uteri of surrogate female mice. Fifteen of twenty-two (68%) blastocysts and four of ten (40%) embryos successfully developed into normal baby mice following embryo transfer. This microwell platform, which supports the development of preimplanted embryos and is low-cost, easy to fabricate and operate, we believe, opens opportunities for a wide range of applications in reproductive medicine and cell biology.

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The fate of embryos transferred into the uterus

Cited by 11 publications

References 18 publications

Influence of the uterine environment on the development of in vitro-produced equine embryos

Influence of the uterine environment on the development of in vitro-produced equine embryos

Embryo implantation: A time for recalling and forwarding

Microwells support high-resolution time-lapse imaging and development of preimplanted mouse embryos

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