Abstract
Advanced growth solutions can be used to improve the quality of embryos previously damaged by growth in less complex inadequate solutions.
Jared Campbell
PhD candidate, Discipline of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,
University of Adelaide
When embryos for reproduction are created via in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) techniques more embryos than are required for a single attempt at pregnancy are often made. These surplus embryos can be frozen for future attempts at pregnancy. Sometimes it will be years before they are needed again. It is known that the solution in which embryos are grown until they are ready for transfer into the mother is very important for their health and how likely it is that their use will result in a successful pregnancy. Current growth solutions are far more advanced than they used to be. Embryos are now transferred between different solutions containing different concentrations of various factors (carbohydrates, vitamins, amino acids etc) that better suit their stage of development. In contrast earlier formulations used have been shown to be damaging to embryos. This is a result of the composition of factors that they contained being far from optimal, and many of their factors, while necessary at one stage of development, becoming harmful at others. Embryos tended to be frozen at the mid stage of their development. We have shown that embryos grown to this mid stage in old damaging growth solution can have their health improved by being grown in one of the new more advanced growth solutions, as it is optimised for supporting the later stages of embryonic development. This could lead to not only improved success at achieving pregnancy using stored embryos but potentially also improvements in the health of offspring.
