Vitrification can modify embryo cleavage stage after warming. Should we change endometrial preparation?

The cleavage stage embryo.

A precise embryo quality evaluation is of paramount importance to sustain a successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) program. In most IVF clinics around the world, this quality assessment relies mainly on the morphological evaluation of cleavage stage embryos. Embryologists should be able to correlate the features observed at the optical microscope with the implantation potential of each particu...

I-38: Chromosome Instability in The Cleavage Stage Embryo

Recently, we demonstrated chromosome instability (CIN) in human cleavage stage embryogenesis following in vitro fertilization (IVF). CIN not necessarily undermines normal human development (i.e. when remaining normal diploid blastomeres develop the embryo proper), however it can spark a spectrum of conditions, including loss of conception, genetic disease and genetic variation development. To s...

Yes, We Can! (Should We?).

We Can, but Should We?

We can, but should we? After recently reflecting upon our profession as pediatric critical care physicians , I concluded that this one complex question gets asked many times throughout the day – or at least it should. A recent report discussed an emerging paradigm in pediatric critical care medicine (1). With more and more chronic patients filling our pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), perha...

Can we bury global warming?

When William Shakespeare took a breath, 280 molecules out of every million entering his lungs were carbon dioxide. Each time you draw breath today, 380 molecules per million are carbon dioxide. That portion climbs about two molecules every year. No one knows the exact consequences of this upsurge in the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration nor the effects that lie ahead as more and m...