Embryo :: Embryos get better start with IVF on a chip
Can conception, the most intimate of human experiences, be automated?
Teruo Fujii of the University of Tokyo in Japan and his colleagues
are building a microfluidic chip to nurture the first stages of
pregnancy.
They hope, eventually, to 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. They say
using such a device could improve the success rate of 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,
in Urbana-Champaign who is also working on automated IVF systems. One
reason for this is that during IVF, eggs or embryos are often moved
or washed with culture fluid, causing changes in temperature and pH,
he says.
To tackle these problems, Fujii's team has created a "lab on a chip"
that is 2 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. Endometrial cells, which line real wombs, are also
grown in the device, so that the chemicals they produce can reach the
embryos and help them grow.
"We are providing the embryos with a much more comfortable
environment, mimicking what happens in the body," Fujii says.
Experiments in mice suggest that the chip is more successful than
traditional IVF at producing embryos that will grow into healthy
fetuses. Of 50 fertilised eggs grown on the chip, 30 developed into
early embryos, compared to 26 out of 50 fertilised eggs grown
through "microdrop" IVF. Here a drop of mineral oil is used to cover
the fertilised egg and a small volume of culture fluid to stop the
egg drying out.In a separate experiment, Fujii's team implanted
embryos grown on the chip into mice and found that 44 per cent of
them developed into healthy fetuses, compared to 40 per cent of those
grown in microdrops. "It's not just about more embryos surviving to
be implanted, they also seem to be doing better once they are
implanted," says Wheeler.
The results were presented at a meeting in Lyon, France, earlier this
month. Fujii's team has approval to test the device on human embryos
and will do so later this year.
For now the sperm and eggs are still prepared for fertilisation
manually but the researchers are working towards automating those
steps too. Wheeler's team has already automated them, but has not
compared his chip-grown embryos with ones produced by conventional
IVF, nor grown endometrial cells on a chip. He suggests that
combining his approach with Fujii's might produce even better
results.
The chip could also be used for growing genetically modified animals,
stem cells and cloned embryos, he adds.
http://www.spiritin
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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