New product gives IVF a boost, researchers say

Announced January 6, researchers in Australia claim to have achieved a "major breakthrough" in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) technology, expected to give millions of women who have suffered miscarriages after IVF treatment a second chance.

The new product, dubbed EmbryGen, is expected to release sometime this year, and researchers say, when the product is added to the IVF culture, it can improve IVF embryo implantation rates for some women by up to 40%.

EmbryoGen contains a signaling molecule called GM-CSF, which is found naturally in the mother's tissues and protects the embryo from stress, making it hardier and more robust in the early implantation period. The product was tested on 1,319 IVF patients in clinical trials, showing a 40 percent increase in implantation success rate.

"This breakthrough has been 20 years in the making," lead researcher Dr. Sarah Robertson of the University of Adelaide in South Australia told science news website Science Daily in an interview. "This is a wonderful advance for couples undertaking IVF, particularly those who have previously lost babies in the first trimester."

EmbryoGen will be launched in Europe and the Middle East by mid-2011 and in the United States in late 2012.

Nearly four million children around the world have been born through IVF or a related technique, involving the transfer of a single sperm into the egg.

Researchers have added a series of enhancements that have "fantastically improved" the chances of success, said Joelle Belaisch-Allart, head of the assisted reproduction unit at the Sevres Hospital, Paris, in an interview with AFP. They include improvements in stimulating eggs; screening egg and sperm for DNA health; better ways of handling the egg; and improvements in the fluid in which the embryo is cultured.

Read more here: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news42821.html