BACKGROUND To report on relationships among baseline serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) measurements, blastocyst development and other selected embryology parameters observed in non-donor oocyte IVF cycles. METHODS Pre-treatment AMH was measured in patients undergoing IVF (n = 79) and retrospectively correlated to in vitro embryo development noted during culture. RESULTS Mean (+/- SD) age f...

OBJECTIVE The majority of embryo transfers (ETs) to date have been performed on day 3 to reduce the potential risk of developmental arrest of in vitro cultured embryos before ET. Development of sequential media has significantly improved culture conditions and allowed blastocyst transfer on day 5. While day 5 ET provides higher clinical pregnancy outcomes with reduced risks of multiple pregnanc...

Background: Hyaluronan (HA) is a structural component of extracellular matrix synthesised by HA synthases HAS1-3, which produce HA of different molecular sizes with distinct biological functions associated with reproductive processes. Hyaluronidase (HYAL) cleaves the HA into biologically active small fragments which are known to regulate cell proliferation through CD44 receptor signaling. HA is...

The ultimate challenge for all in vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinics is to develop the ability to select for transfer the best single embryo first, from the patient’s cohort of embryos, thereby maximising the chance of pregnancy while the incidence of multiple pregnancies is kept to a minimum and fewer transfer cycles are required. This ambition has driven extensive research and development into...

BACKGROUND Monozygotic (MZ) twin pregnancies are associated with increased perinatal mortality and morbidity, and risk of congenital anomalies. The causes of MZ twinning in humans are unclear but the incidence may increase after PGD, for example, as a result of holes created in the zona pellucida. We compared the incidence of MZ twin pregnancies in ICSI cycles with PGD, versus ICSI cycles witho...

The ultimate challenge for all in vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinics is to develop the ability to select for transfer the best single embryo first, from the patient’s cohort of embryos, thereby maximising the chance of pregnancy while the incidence of multiple pregnancies is kept to a minimum and fewer transfer cycles are required. This ambition has driven extensive research and development into...

BACKGROUND In Western gender-neutral countries, the sex ratio at birth is estimated to be approximately 1.06. This ratio is lower than the estimated sex ratio at fertilization which ranges from 1.07 to 1.70 depending on the figures of sex ratio at birth and differential embryo/fetal mortality rates taken into account to perform these estimations. Likewise, little is known about the sex ratio at...

We examined the developmental ability of enucleated eggs receiving embryonic nuclei and male primordial germ cells (PGCs) in the mouse. Reconstituted eggs developed into the blastocyst stage only when an earlier 2-cell nucleus was transplanted (36%) but very rarely if the donor nucleus was derived from a later 2-cell, 8-cell, or inner cell mass of a blastocyst (0-3%). 54-100%, 11-67%, 6-43% and...