What's New -the Latest Advances in IVF | What's New at New Hope Fertility | What's Next -the Future of IVF
WHAT'S NEW –THE LATEST ADVANCES IN IVF
Doctor Zhang will be attending "The Second World Congress on Mild Approaches in Assisted Reproduction: Embracing Mild IVF and IVM " held by the International Society for Mild Approaches in Assisted Reproduction(www.ismaar.org) as a speaker. The conference will be held in London between April 10-11 2008. Doctor Zhang encourages people to attend. For more information about the conference please check with their website: www.ismaar.org
Breaking News...
"Study links Preemies, long-term risks"
On March 25th 2008 Yahoo! News reported premature births have higher death rates and increases chance to be childless as adults. For more information click on the link
“Scientists create three parent embryos”On February 5th 2008 Reuters reported the breaking news about the achievements of a group of reproductive researchers from New Castle University, England. The idea behind the creation of three parent embryo is to prevent the inheritance of defective mitochondria from mother to child, there by hoping to prevent kids being born with fatal disease.
Dr. John Zhang is a pioneer in this field. Dr. Zhang was successfully studied the progress of the fetus up to 29 weeks of pregnancy after nuclear transfer. He presented this innovative piece of work at the annual meeting of American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) 2003 and received tremendous attention of scientists from all over the world.
Dr. Zhang’s original work was published as “ Zhang, John, Guanglun Zhuang, Yong Zeng, Carlo Acosta, Yimin Shu, and Jamie Grifo “Pregnancy Derived from Human Nuclear Transfer” Fertility and Sterility, 80: supplement 3, S56, 2003."
What is Nuclear Transfer?In higher organisms including humans, both nucleus and mitochondria contain DNA - the self replicating genetic material. In normal sexual reproduction, mitochondrial DNA is inherited strictly through cytoplasm of the maternal oocyte to the offspring. This type of inheritance pattern is generally known as maternal inheritance. Mitochondria are small cytoplasmic organelles where energy synthesis of a cell takes place. The defective mitochondrial inheritance can cause fatal heart, liver, brain or muscular disorders. The only possible method to overcome this situation is through nuclear transfer. Nuclear transfer is an invasive procedure where an in-vitro fertilized egg's nucleus is transferred into an enucleated ovum. This results in a three parent embryo. Its nucleus is formed by the fusion of sperm and mother's oocyte nucleus (recipient) and its cytoplasm originated from the enucleated donor cell. This results in the inheritance of DNA from three different sources, the nuclear DNA is from sperm and recipient oocyte, and the mitochondrial DNA is mainly through the donor.
Fertility Education
The Differences Between Vitrification and Conventional Cryopreservation
The embryo cryopreservation enhances the patient's opportunity for repeated attempts at conception in the cycles following oocytes retrieval. Cryopreservation can be achieved by either conventional slow cooling or by vitrification. The rate of cooling and the concentration of the cryoprotectants are the two major factors determining the outcome of cryopreservation. Conventional cryopreservation techniques require costly equipments, need more time to finish, and results in a high proportion of chilling injuries by ice crystals. Hence the overall success rate for a good recovery is low.
Vitrification is an advanced and very delicate cryopreservation technique. The cells and tissues are placed directly into the vitrification solution after critical equilibration with cryoprotectants and then plunged directly into liquid nitrogen. The primary advantage of vitrification is that there is no ice crystal formation due to the increased speed of temperature conduction. This increases the cooling rates and drastically reduces chilling injuries. In addition vitrification uses less concentrated cryoprotectant materials and the exposure time is also very less. Above all, the survival chances of vitrified materials are higher compared to conventional cryopreservation methods.
Our director Dr. John Zhang is a pioneer scientist and has more than 15 years of experience in vitrification procedures, and his innovative research helped in bringing this technique into IVF practice. One of his publications is cited here for a quick reference.
Zhang J, Liu J, Xu K P,Liu B, DiMattina M. Extracorporeal development and ultra rapid freezing of human fetal ova. Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 12, 6, 361- 367, 1995.
Vitrification – Fast Freezing Method for Embryo & Egg Freezing
Today, as enterprising singles & couples we lead rich and fulfilling lives, pursue advanced degrees and rewarding careers, travel the world, and satisfy our personal dreams…and, in some cases, chose to start families later in life. The dilemma is to have a baby soon, or risk fertility treatment later with no guarantee of a family in the end.
Fortunately, today single women can preserve their fertility through a technique called egg freezing, & couples have the option to delay child-bearing by freezing their embryos. In addition, couples undergoing IVF may freeze their surplus embryos to be used in future IVF cycles rather than repeat additional egg retrievals.
Embryo, Sperm, Ovarian Tissue & Egg Freezing is not new. It was first done in Singapore & the first live birth using a frozen egg was reported in the early 1980's using a method called slow-dunk or slow freezing, which is still commonly used today. The main problem with slow freezing is the formation of ice crystals around the egg or embryo, which can puncture the egg or embryo during the thawing process. This lowers success rates to a 50% survival thaw-rate (the percent that survive after thawing) according to The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. And, slow-freezing results in a low 13.5% pregnancy rate according to Unita di Medicina Della Riproduzione, Fondazione HERA, a major IVF research center in Italy.
Women choosing egg freezing, embryo freezing, or ovarian tissue freezing by Vitrification, slow-dunk's fast-freezing counterpart, will benefit from a 95%+ survival thaw-rate (versus 50% of slow-freezing), and up to a 41.9% pregnancy rate (versus 13.5% of slow-freezing), practically the same as the rate as using fresh eggs or embryos. With Vitrification, freezing occurs so quickly the formation of ice crystals is prevented.
Vitrification was originally developed in 1987 in Washington DC and it was perfected by our international partner, Kato Ladies Clinic in Japan. When it first became available in the US (October 2004) New Hope Fertility Center dedicated our labs to Vitrification. We were the first East Coast fertility center to provide Vitrification to all women, and today we are recognized in the US and globally as a leading expert in the Vitrification technique.
Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing - cutting edge method for Egg Freezing
Every baby girl is born with approximately 2 million eggs in her ovaries. By the time she reaches puberty, she'll have about 300,000 left. Of these eggs, roughly 1,000 degenerate each month, and only about 300 will mature and be released during her reproductive years.
Because a woman's body does not produce additional eggs, like men reproduce sperm, she may chose Egg Freezing or Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing to extend her fertility beyond her fertility life. As an alternative to Egg Freezing, she may choose Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing, which is a simple out-patient procedure that also preserves her eggs.
Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing involves removing the ovary, carefully micro surgically dissecting the tissue, freezing it, and subsequently transplanting it back to the woman when she's ready for a child. All of a woman's eggs can be found in the thin 1mm outer layer of the ovary, while the inside of the ovary is simply a pulp of blood vessels with no specific organization or function other than to feed the eggs and follicles that are located on the periphery. This structure makes it possible for an entire ovary to be removed and the periphery dissected off micro surgically. The ovarian tissue is then put through a computer controlled, gradual freezing process. It is preserved for future transplantation back to the woman when she is ready for a child.
The advantage of Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing versus Egg Freezing is that all remaining eggs the woman's ovary contains can be extracted and frozen in one procedure without IVF hormone treatment. Egg Freezing requires minimal IVF medication & extracting the eggs that have matured during each cycle, and each cycle will likely produce only 1-6 quality eggs.
The first attempts at Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing were made in the 1950's; in the 1990's it became widely used for cancer patients. It is a fairly new strategy for fertility preservation in non-cancer patients, although the technique is the same. Our Medical Director & Founder, Dr John Zhang, first started research on ovarian tissue freezing in 1995, and he and his partner, Dr. Sherman Silber, are consequently recognized globally as leading experts in the Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing technique. Dr. Zhang and Dr. Silber perform this out-patient procedure at New Hope Fertility Center.
The Embryo Bank
The world is a different place today than that in which our mothers and grandmothers lived. Women have opportunities for professional enrichment that bring new meaning to duel income homes. Many of today's modern couples choose to start a family later in life. Embryo Banking allows these couples the chance to freeze embryos and delay starting their families until the time is right.
Also, during the IVF process many couples naturally produce an embryo surplus. Freezing surplus embryos until future cycles can circumvent additional egg retrievals.
And last, for singles & couples with little time left on their fertility clock, Embryo Banking is an ideal strategy and gives the best insurance for starting a family later, especially if they want more than one child. Remember, a 9 month pregnancy at 39, for example, takes an entire year off your fertility clock. Banking embryos before a pregnancy at 39 years of age may give you a better likelihood of having additional children later since fertility begins a rapid decline at 35 & declines more rapidly at 40 years of age. Banking embryos is simply a smart strategy for any woman or couple over 35.
Of course, at New Hope Fertility Center, Vitrification is our freezing method for Embryo Banking.