I-Corps: Noninvasive Embryo Selection Technique

I-Corps项目的广泛影响和商业潜力将通过提供一种更有效的方法来选择高质量胚胎进行移植，从而改善辅助生殖技术的结果。将胚胎移植纳入牲畜育种计划，以最大限度地提高优良遗传性状，这在经济上对生产者有利。然而，目前唯一可用的选择胚胎移植的方法是主观的、侵入性的或昂贵的。由于大多数牲畜生产者无法证明这些现有方法在其计划中的成本是合理的，因此将死亡和低质量的胚胎移植给接受者是很常见的，这些胚胎永远不会怀孕。该项目开发的技术涉及一种无创、经济、定量的方法来选择胚胎活力和质量。使用这项技术来选择要移植的胚胎将增加胚胎移植后的怀孕率。这项技术将降低移植不能存活的胚胎和照顾未怀孕的受体动物的成本。这项技术也提供了唯一一种公开的方法来选择哪些胚胎在冷冻保存中存活下来。这个I-Corps项目可以提高牲畜生产环境中胚胎移植和哺乳动物胚胎低温保存的效率。这个I-Corps项目调查了证明早期胚胎生长潜力可以由胚胎比重决定的研究的商业潜力。这种I-Corps技术测量胚胎通过充满介质的腔室下降的速度。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，这不能通过标准的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其膜调节进入和离开细胞的能力。然后细胞将与介质趋于平衡，水将进入细胞。这增加了死胚胎的细胞密度，导致下降时间比活胚胎的下降时间更快。研究表明，该技术在区分小鼠受精卵、小鼠低温保存囊胚和绵羊低温保存囊胚中的活胚胎和死胚胎方面是有效的。进一步的研究表明，该技术不会伤害胚胎，因为胚胎在用比重装置测量后继续发育并建立健康的妊娠。

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.