Understanding and assessing impact of hyaluronidases in supporting preimplantation embryo development

低生育率是家畜和人类的一个问题，给农民带来了重大的经济损失，给夫妇带来了社会不适和成本，给NHS带来了开支。到目前为止，实验室中胚胎生产的效率远远低于体内生长的胚胎，这表明需要进一步研究以改善胚胎培养基的配方。在BBSRC的支持下，我们已经确定了一种酶（Hyal-2），当添加到奶牛或绵羊胚胎培养物或注入绵羊输卵管时，它可以切割胚胎和输卵管透明质酸（HA），以改善胚胎发育和质量。精子在输卵管中受精时也会释放类似的酶。这些酶可以提高胚胎培养基的效率，但在商业化之前，需要进一步了解它们的作用。我们的研究将在我们的实验室中在绵羊胚胎上测试Hyals和HA。我们将把处理过的胚胎植入母羊体内，以测量妊娠率。我们还将开始对人类胚胎的研究，并获得伦理批准。

Low fertility is a problem in domestic animals and human, impose major economic loss for farmers and social discomfort and costs to couples and expenses to the NHS. To date, efficiency of embryos production in the lab is much less than of those grown in the body, indicating a need for further research to improve formulation of embryo culture media. With BBSRC support, we have identified an enzyme (Hyal-2) which chops embryos' and oviductal hyaluronan (HA) to improve embryo development and quality when added to cow or sheep embryo culture or infused into the sheep oviduct. Similar enzymes are released by sperm at fertilisation in the oviduct. These enzymes could improve efficiency of embryo culture media, but before commercialization, further knowledge of their actions is needed. Our study will test Hyals and HA on sheep embryos in our laboratory. We will place treated embryos in ewes to measure pregnancy rates. We will also begin studies on human embryos, with ethical approval.