The Usefulness of Antisperm Antibodies Testing
Nicolás Garrido, Rocio Rivera in A Practical Guide to Sperm Analysis, 2017
Fertilization is a fundamental process that involves a coordinated sequence of interactions between two highly differentiated cells, the spermatozoon and the oocyte, giving rise to a diploid zygote. This chapter presents basic concepts on antisperm antibodies (ASA) etiology in men and women and their impact on fertility. It then describes several analytical techniques to evaluate ASA presence and incidence for both women and men and presents data on ASA incidence retrieved from published reports. The chapter summarizes recent findings on the assessment of sperm surface ASA in a large group of patients attending an Andrology Laboratory. It then provides findings on ASA incidence and their relationship with routine semen parameters and sperm kinematics. The chapter describes a set of practical guidelines to perform ASA evaluation, and provides information on commercially available kits as well. To tolerate sperm antigens, the immune system exhibits a particular behavior, in both the male and the female reproductive tract.
The Uni-Personal Pregnancy
Helen Watt in The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth, 2016
This chapter explores whether the fetus is, morally speaking, one of human moral subject or, as some would put it, a person, though this word has often further connotations. Some link personal status very closely to a history of thoughts and feelings, perhaps of a highly individual kind associated with a personality. While accepting that the human individual is a bodily subject who began many months before birth, they associate the rights and status of this bodily individual very closely with his or her desires. Identical twinning from a single zygote is one phenomenon often used to argue against the individual nature of the early embryo. It may indeed be impossible to know in the case of twinning which embryo, if either, is the original individual that budded to create a new embryo and which is the budded off individual created. Embryos created in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) laboratories can only survive a few days in an unfrozen state.
Sexual Reproduction and the Power of Genetics
Bruce Alberts, Dennis Bray, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter in Essential Cell Biolog, 2013
This chapter explores the cell biology of sexual reproduction. It discusses what organisms gain from sex. The chapter examines the reproductive cells produced by males and females, and explores the specialized form of cell division, called meiosis, that generates them. It discusses how Gregor Mendel, a nineteenth-century Austrian monk, deduced the basic logic of genetic inheritance by studying the progeny of pea plants. The chapter also describes how scientists can exploit the genetics of sexual reproduction to gain insights into human biology, human origins, and the molecular underpinnings of human disease. Genetics provides a powerful way to discover what specific genes do and how variations in those genes underlie the differences between one species and another or between individuals within a species. Sexual reproduction involves the cyclic alternation of diploid and haploid states: diploid germ-line cells divide by meiosis to form haploid gametes, and the haploid gametes from two individuals fuse at fertilization to form a new diploid cell—the zygote.
High three pro-nuclei (3PN) zygotes proportion associated with normal embryo multinucleation at the two-cell stage: two cases report
Published in Gynecological Endocrinology, 2020
Mingzhao Li, Xia Xue, Juanzi Shi
Objective: Blastomere multinucleation at the two-cell stage (MN2) is a common nuclear abnormality observed in early human embryos and known to decrease the implantation rate. The aim of this study is to explore whether or not there is a link between high 3PN zygotes proportion and MN2 incidence. Methods: For embryo culture in the conventional incubator, the evaluation of nuclear status of two-cell stage is usually not performed. Therefore, the MN2 phenomenon is easily ignored. The time-lapse monitoring system (TLS) offers a promising new method to evaluate embryo development. We reported two cases who had single 2PN zygote and more than four 3PN zygotes in the conventional in-vitro fertilization (c-IVF) cycle. Results: We observed the MN2 incidence in the single normal embryo by TLS which suggested that it might be resulted from high 3PN zygotes proportion incidence. No available embryo was obtained in the first c-IVF cycle and the intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment was performed in the second cycle. In subsequent ICSI cycles, we observed no 3PN zygotes incidence and transferred two day 3 embryos for the patients. Finally, the two couples successfully obtained healthy babies. Conclusions: High 3PN zygotes proportion might be associated with the MN2 incidence.
Good quality blastocyst from non-/mono-pronuclear zygote may be used for transfer during IVF
Published in Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine, 2016
Bao-Li Yin, Hao-Ying Hao, Ya-Nan Zhang, Duo Wei, Cui-Lian Zhang
Although healthy infants have developed from non- and mono-pronuclear zygotes, the transfer of embryos from non- and mono-pronuclear zygotes is not recommended because there are no proper selection criteria. In the present study, we discuss how to select non- and mono-pronuclear embryos with the highest developmental potential at 19–20 hours post-insemination. We found that the percentage of blastocysts with normal chromosome constitution in non-pronuclear zygotes was slightly higher than in mono-pronuclear zygotes. Non- and mono-pronuclear embryos that were at the 4-cell stage on D2 and/or at the 6- to 8-cell stage on D3 had higher incidence rates of blastocysts with normal chromosome constitutions. We also found higher incidences of blastocysts with normal chromosome constitution on D6 than on D5. The results suggest that if high quality non- and mono-pronuclear zygotes develop to the 4-cell stage on D2 and the 6-to 8- cell stages on D3, along with high quality D6 blastocysts, the incidence of blastocysts with normal chromosome constitution is higher.
The impact of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) on multiple pronuclei (PN) presence and oocyte maturity in ICSI treatments
Published in Gynecological Endocrinology, 2020
Nabil Sayme, Marija Kljajic, Thomas Krebs, Dieter H. A. Maas
This prospective study was designed to investigate whether anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels are associated with the presence of multiple pronuclei in zygotes as well as with the ovarian response, fertilization rate and pregnancy outcome in ICSI cycles. A total of 413 patients undergoing ICSI cycles were included in the study. The assessment included 3084 MII oocytes. Serum AMH measurements were performed at the first initial presence of the patient. The outcome measures were the presence of multiple pronuclei (PN), a number of retrieved oocytes, number of mature/immature oocytes, fertilization rate and clinical pregnancy. Obtained results showed a statistically significant correlation between AMH levels and maternal age, the number of follicles, the number of cumulus-oocyte complexes, mature and immature oocyte, fertilization rate and pregnancy rate. Linear regression analysis showed that AMH significantly correlates with the presence of multiple pronuclei in the zygote. The further analysis confirmed that the number of zygotes with the presence of multiple pronuclei increased when AMH levels were higher. This is the first examination of the prognostic value of the serum AMH on the presence of multiple pronuclei in the zygote and our data in the preliminary study suggest that AMH levels could be used as a predictive marker.