Page 149 - PCC02

Incubation Volume/Embryo Grouping
1. Incubation volume
• Within the lumen of the reproductive tract the developing embryo is exposed to μl volumes of fluid( Leese 1988)
• In contrast, the embryo grown in-vitro is subject to large volumes of medium up to 1 ml.(Bolton 2014) which may have the possibility of diluting any autocrine factor(s) and become ineffectual
2. Group culture
• Positive effects of culturing embryos in groups showing that pre-implantation embryos may produce a factor(s) capable of stimulating development of both itself and surrounding embryos had been reported (Ebner 2010)
Influence of group culture and culture volume on the formation of human blastocysts:
a prospective randomized study
• Possible influence on day 3 embryos to develop into blastocysts
• Embryos initially cultured in groups till day 3(2-4embs./droplet, 160-200 μl
Group 1: group culture in a small volume (5μl/emb.) Group 2: Single culture in a small volume (5μl) Group 3: Single culture in a large volume (160μl) Group 4: Group culture in a large volume (160μl/emb)
No sig. diff. in blastocyst formation (35,45,36,36%) Only sig. diff. was found to be the no. of day 3 embryos
Rijnders PM, Jansen CA HR 1999
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