A new test could soon greatly increase the success of IVF (In Vitro Fertilization).
- One in 8 couples in France consults due to difficulty conceiving a child, a figure which has continued to increase for two decades.
- Currently, one of the main obstacles to successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) is that it is difficult to know the best embryos to choose for the pregnancy to go through to completion.
- A new test could change the situation.
A groundbreaking embryo test could improve the chances of thousands of people having IVF.
Currently, one of the main obstacles to successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) is that it is difficult to know the best embryos to choose for the pregnancy to go through to completion.
“Today, the best way we have to predict the trajectory of an embryo is either to examine them and measure their morphological characteristics, or to take cells from the embryo to study the genetic heritage. But both of these methods have their limits”, explains Professor H. Irene Su, who designed the new test.
IVF: how does the new test work?
The new method in question does not consist of examining the embryos themselves, but of using the remains of the liquid medium which was used to cultivate them. The team of scientists took samples of growth medium from embryos at five different stages in order to collect information on the profile of exRNA* that they release during their development. Around 4,000 of these molecules have been identified at each stage. By feeding this data into a machine learning model, it was possible to predict the growth trajectory of an embryo based on the exRNAs it produces.
The model’s predictions were found to match tests currently used to check embryo quality, suggesting that this non-invasive method could potentially be used to sort out embryos most likely to succeed.
IVF: one in 8 couples in France consults for infertility
In their reportthe authors specify that it will take some time before their new method can be used in a clinical context.
“It’s really only in the last decade that we’ve started to discover the uses of exRNAs, and there could be countless other applications that we haven’t yet identified.”said Sheng Zhong, co-lead author of the study.
“Unfortunately, there is still a lot of chance involved in the success of IVF, but we hope our research can change that,” concludes H. Irene Su.
According to Inserm, one in 8 couples in France consults due to difficulty conceiving a child, a figure which has continued to increase for two decades.
*Extracellular double-stranded RNAs constitute the genome of certain viruses.
