I-Corps: Noninvasive Embryo Selection Technique

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将通过允许更有效的方法来选择高质量的胚胎移植来改善辅助生殖技术的结果。 将胚胎移植用于家畜育种计划以最大化上级遗传性状对生产者来说在经济上是有利的。 然而，目前唯一可用的选择移植哪个胚胎的方法是主观的，侵入性的或昂贵的。 由于大多数牲畜生产者无法证明这些可用方法的成本是合理的，因此将死亡和低质量的胚胎转移到受体中是很常见的，这将永远不会怀孕。 该项目开发的技术涉及一种非侵入性，具有成本效益和定量的方法来选择胚胎的活力和质量。 使用这项技术来选择移植哪个胚胎将导致胚胎移植后的妊娠率增加。 这项技术将减少用于移植无活力胚胎和照顾未怀孕受体动物的成本。 这项技术还提供了唯一公开的方法来选择哪些胚胎在冷冻保存中存活。 该I-Corps项目可以提高家畜生产环境中胚胎移植和哺乳动物胚胎冷冻保存的效率。该I-Corps项目调查了证明早期胚胎生长潜力可以通过胚胎比重确定的研究的商业潜力。这种I-Corps技术测量胚胎通过充满培养基的腔室下降的速率。 胚胎下降率提供了基于细胞内成分密度的细胞内特性的见解，这不能通过标准胚胎选择技术来估计。 例如，一个不能存活的胚胎已经失去了细胞膜调节细胞内外物质的能力。 然后，细胞将与培养基平衡，水将进入细胞。 这增加了死亡胚胎的细胞密度，并导致比活胚胎的下降时间更快的下降时间。 研究表明，该技术可有效区分小鼠受精卵、小鼠冷冻保存囊胚和绵羊冷冻保存囊胚中的活胚胎和死胚胎。 进一步的研究表明，该技术不会伤害胚胎，因为胚胎在使用比重装置测量后继续发育并建立健康的怀孕。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will improve outcomes of assisted reproductive technologies by allowing a more effective method to select high quality embryos to transfer. Incorporating embryo transfer into livestock breeding programs to maximize superior genetic traits can be economically advantageous to producers. However, the only currently available means to select which embryo to transfer is subjective, invasive or expensive. As most livestock producers cannot justify the cost of these available methods into their programs, the transfer of dead and low quality embryos into recipients, which will never establish a pregnancy, is common. The technology developed with this project involves a noninvasive, cost-effective and quantitative method to select embryo viability and quality. Using this technology to select which embryo to transfer will result in increased pregnancy rates after embryo transfer. This technology will reduce costs spent on transferring non-viable embryos and caring for non-pregnant recipient animals. This technology also provides the only published method to select which embryos have survived cryopreservation. This I-Corps project can increase the efficiency of embryo transfer and cryopreservation of mammalian embryos in a livestock production setting.This I-Corps project investigates the commercial potential of research demonstrating early embryo growth potential can be determined by an embryos specific gravity. This I-Corps technology measures the rate of an embryos descent through a media filled chamber. The embryos descent rate provides insight to intracellular properties based on density of intracellular constituents, which cannot be estimated through standard embryo selection techniques. For example, a non-viable embryo has lost the ability of its membrane to regulate what enters and exits the cell. The cell will then move towards equilibrium with the media and water will enter the cell. This increases the cellular density of the dead embryo, and results in a faster descent time than the descent time of a live embryo. Studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of this technology to distinguish live from dead embryos in mouse zygotes, mouse cryopreserved blastocysts and cryopreserved sheep blastocysts. Additional studies have demonstrated the technology does not harm embryos, as embryos continue development and establish healthy pregnancies after measured with the specific gravity device.