Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on May 13, 2008
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/den123
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Novel strategy with potential to identify developmentally competent IVF blastocysts
1 Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories (MISCL), Monash University, Level 3—STRIP Building 75, Wellington Road, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia 2 Monash IVF, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia 3 Centre for Human Reproduction, Genesis Athens Hospital, Athens 15232, Greece 4 Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Athens University, Athens 11527, Greece
5 Correspondence address. Tel: +61 3 9905 0778; Fax: +61 3 9905 0680; E-mail: david.cram{at}med.monash.edu.au
BACKGROUND: Currently there are no markers fully predictive of developmental competence of human IVF embryos. The present study investigated a novel strategy involving blastocyst biopsy and DNA fingerprinting to link developmental competence with gene expression patterns.
METHODS: Patient’s blastocysts were biopsied to remove 8–20 trophectoderm (TE) cells for molecular analysis prior to transfer. Biopsy samples were amplified and gene expression was evaluated using microarrays. Sibling TE biopsies and cells from resulting offspring were subjected to DNA fingerprinting to identify which blastocyst(s) in the transfer cohort developed to term.
RESULTS: Blastocyst biopsy did not appear to impair developmental competence. Comparative microarray analysis of cDNA from pooled ‘viable’ and ‘non-viable’ TE samples identified over 7000 transcripts expressed exclusively in ‘viable’ blastocysts. The most significant of these included transcripts involved in cell adhesion and cell communication, key processes that have been associated with mammalian implantation. DNA fingerprinting of three cohorts of sibling blastocysts identified those blastocyst(s) that produced term pregnancies.
CONCLUSIONS: The combination of blastocyst biopsy, microarray gene expression profiling and DNA fingerprinting is a powerful tool to identify diagnostic markers of competence to develop to term. This strategy may be used to develop a rapid diagnostic assay or for refining existing criteria for the selection of the single most viable blastocyst among a cohort developing in vitro.
Key words: blastocyst biopsy/DNA fingerprinting/microarrays/developmental competence/implantation
These authors contributed equally to this work. Submitted on October 11, 2007; resubmitted on February 27, 2008; accepted on March 18, 2008.
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  G. Jones, D. Cram, and On behalf of all authors Reply: Novel strategy with potential to identify developmentally competent IVF blastocysts Hum. Reprod., December 1, 2008; 23(12): 2872 - 2873. [Full Text] [PDF]
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I. Findlay Novel strategy with potential to identify developmentally competent IVF blastocysts Hum. Reprod., December 1, 2008; 23(12): 2871 - 2872. [Full Text] [PDF]
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