Effect Of Mouse Blastomere Biopsy Methods On The Developmental Competence Of Embryos To The Blastocyst Stage After Manipulation

Abstract

Preimplantation genetics diagnosis was considered as an evolving technique which provide an alternative practice to prenatal diagnosis in order to reduce the transmission of severe genetic disease to offspring for couple with high risk of hereditary disease (Braude et al., 2002). Samples for genetic testing was obtained from oocytes or from cleaving embryo via biopsy. In general, there were three steps of embryo biopsy to get the genetic materials for diagnosis. The first step of preimplantation genetic diagnosis was opening the zona pellucida. Since the approach of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, there were three methods that have been used to breach the zona pellucida. In order to improve the successful rates, assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures continually undergo optimization and enhancement such that the best quality gametes and embryos could be identified and manipulated, thus improving clinical outcomes. The introduction of piezo – actuated micromanipulator and laser assisted technology had improved the consistency and reproducibility of traditional ART techniques. This experiment compared the effective to the embryo biopsy between the Piezo – actuated micromanipulator and the applied laser assisted technology which is XY CLONE Laser. The result had shown that the developmental rate of embryos biopsied by XY CLONE Laser was significantly higher than embryos biopsied by Piezo – actuated micromanipulator (77.33 ± 7.58 and 61.25 ± 1.25, respectively). In addition, the quality of embryo after biopsy were also different between manipulation with Piezo micromanipulator and XY CLONE laser, based on the number of cells per blastocyst. While the embryo biopsied by Piezo Micromanipulator was 32.4 ± 5.95, the embryo biopsied by XY CLONE Laser was slightly higher, which was 58.89 ± 6.89 cell per blastocyst. Finally, when co – cultured the biopsied blastomere with equivalently embryo, the development of the blastomere always followed timeline of development of embryo.