Permanent preservation of genetic resources may be indispensable for the future of humanity. This requires liquid nitrogen, as is the case for preserving animal sperm. However, this technique is expensive and poses a risk of irrecoverable sample loss on non-replenishment of liquid nitrogen in case of natural disasters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In freeze-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycles, hormone replacement treatment (HRT) is crucial for implantation and pregnancy maintenance. HRT typically continues until the 10th week of pregnancy owing to a luteoplacental shift, although a definitive HRT regimen remains undetermined. We present the case of a woman who underwent FET during an HRT cycle and ceased HRT after a negative pregnancy test at 3 weeks and 5 days, who went on to deliver a healthy baby.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough surgical varicocele treatment is generally considered to result in improved reproductive outcomes, we encountered a rare case of postoperative azoospermia in an infertile male patient who underwent microsurgical varicocelectomy for a palpable left-sided varicocele with concomitant cryptozoospermia. More than 1 year after varicocelectomy, the patient still had not recovered from azoospermia. Thereafter, he underwent microdissection testicular sperm extraction (micro-TESE), allowing him and his partner to obtain one good quality blastocyst via intracytoplasmic sperm injection following oocyte retrievals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Male infertility is partially caused by an inappropriate lifestyle and comorbidities. In this study, we analyzed the prevalence of these factors and the effects of lifestyle modifications as part of male preconception care.
Methods: Four hundred and two male partners of couples seeking conception with abnormal parameters upon the first semen analysis were enrolled.
Background: Endometrial receptivity array (ERA) is used to determine the timing of embryo transfer (ET) synchronized with the window of implantation (WOI). The effectiveness and evaluation of ERAs in women with recurrent implantation failure remain controversial. We report the case of a patient with recurrent implantation failure that raises the issue of reproducibility of ERA tests.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch Question: Is PIEZO-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) coupled with a new novel operational fluid (perfluoro-n-octane) superior to standard ICSI?
Design: A cohort of patients (n = 69) undertaking microinjection were recruited between January and November 2019 and were then prospectively case-matched. Patients required six or more mature oocytes for inclusion in the study. PIEZO-ICSI uses high-speed microinjection drilling to penetrate the zona and oolemma and deposit the spermatozoa into the cytoplasm, compared with the traditional 'cutting' action of ICSI.
Since the first successful pregnancies achieved by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were reported, ICSI has become an essential technique in assisted reproductive technology (ART). ICSI uses micropipettes with a spiking tip to penetrate the zona pellucida and membrane. Then, the cytoplasm is usually aspirated into the micropipette for membrane breakage (conventional-ICSI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA husband and his wife, both 34 years old, consulted our clinic because of primary infertility. Sperm analysis revealed that the sperm concentration, motility, and progressive motility were (42.8±22.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the head-first or tail-first injection of sperm into the cytoplasm by Piezo-ICSI (PICSI) on oocyte survival, fertilization, embryo development and implantation ability in humans.
Methods: We retrospectively investigated 632 mature oocytes retrieved from 152 infertile patients who attended our PICSI-ET program at the Niji Clinic between October 2010 and January 2014. Of these, 342 mature oocytes retrieved from 75 patients were injected with sperm head first, and 290 mature oocytes retrieved from 77 patients were injected with sperm tail first into the cytoplasm.
J Assist Reprod Genet
April 2016
Erratum to: J Assist Reprod Genet (2015) 32:1827–1833, DOI 10.1007/s10815-015-0597-9. The authors would like to apologize for accidentally making a mistake in the inner and outer diameter calculation of the Piezo-ICSI micropipettes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Assist Reprod Genet
December 2015
Purpose: The purposes of the present study are to assess the clinical efficiency of Piezo-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and to improve the Piezo-ICSI method for human oocytes.
Methods: We examined three ICSI methods to determine their clinical efficiency by comparing the survival, fertilization, good-quality day-3 embryo, pregnancy, and live birth rates. The three ICSI methods tested were conventional ICSI (CI) (using beveled spiked micropipettes with a wall thickness of 1 μm), conventional Piezo-ICSI (CPI) (using flat-tipped micropipettes with a wall thickness of 0.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine if the size of zona pellucida thinning area by laser assisted hatching could affect the rates of pregnancy and implantation for vitrified-warmed embryo transfers at the cleavage-stage.
Methods: A total of 120 vitrified-warmed cleavage-stage embryo transfers were randomly assigned to either quarter or half of zona pellucida thinning group.
Results: The rates of clinical pregnancy (46.
Purpose: To report a successful delivery after the transfer of a re-cryopreserved day-7 hatched blastocyst.
Methods And Results: A 30-year-old woman underwent a long-treatment protocol for ovarian stimulation. Fourteen mature oocytes were obtained, and twelve were fertilized.
J Exp Clin Assist Reprod
October 2009
Little information is available on perinatal outcome of cryopreserved day-7 blastocyst transfer. In the present report, perinatal outcomes for transfers of cryopreserved blastocysts by a vitrification method were examined with respect to the day of blastocyst expansion among on day 5, 6 or 7 before cryopreservation. We investigated 263 cycles of vitrified-warmed blastocyst stage embryo transfer performed between April 2005 and April 2009, which were reviewed retrospectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis case report describes successful pregnancies after vitrification of human day-7 blastocysts. A total of 16 day-7 blastocysts were vitrified and warmed. All 16 blastocysts survived after warming and were transferred to 11 patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To report successful pregnancies after the transfer of re-vitrified human day 7 blastocysts developed from vitrified cleaved embryos.
Methods And Results: A total of five day 7 blastocysts developed from vitrified cleaved embryos were re-vitrified and re-warmed. All of five re-vitrified day 7 blastocysts (100%) survived after warming and were transferred to three patients.
Purpose: To evaluate the effect of the size of zona pellucida opening by laser assisted hatching for frozen cleaved embryo that were thawed after both fresh and frozen cleaved embryo transfer cycles failed and were cultured to blastocyst after thawing in patients with multiple implantation failures.
Materials And Methods: Of 101 consecutive procedures (October 2003 to June 2006), 30 patients declined to perform assisted hatching and were selected as control group, 40 patients had 40 microm opening of the zona (October 2003 to January 2005), 31 patients had 50% of the zona opening (February 2005 to June 2006).
Results: The pregnancy, implantation and delivery rates were significantly higher in 50% opening group (74%, 52% and 65%) compared to control group (17%, 10% and 13%; P < 0.
The objective of this study was to investigate whether a change in assisted hatching technique from partial opening to total removal of the zona pellucida improved the outcome of vitrified blastocyst transfer. This was a preliminary observational study conducted from November 2003 to April 2006. Partial opening using acid Tyrode's solution was performed in 45 cycles, while total removal using a laser and mechanical pipetting was performed in 57 cycles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Vitrification is a fairly well-established technique for cryopreservation of human zona-intact blastocysts. However, little is known about the efficacy of the vitrification technique for zona-free hatched blastocysts.
Case: A total of 4 hatched blastocysts from 4 healthy, infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization were vitrified and warmed.
Background: Vitrification has evolved into an established technique for cryopreservation of human blastocysts. However, it is still unclear whether the blastocysts developed from frozen embryos can be cryopreserved a second time by vitrification for further embryo transfer.
Case: A 31-year-old woman underwent a long-treatment protocol for ovarian stimulation.
Background: Manual puncture of the trophectoderm of human blastocysts with a needle before vitrification increases their survival rate, but the embryos take a long time to re-expand. This study examined whether causing human blastocysts to collapse by manual pipetting before vitrification would allow more rapid re-expansion and improve pregnancy rates.
Methods: After embryo transfer in IVF cycles, surplus embryos that developed to the expanded blastocyst stage were placed in cryoprotectant and then artificially shrunk by mechanical pipetting with a fine hand-drawn glass pipette slightly smaller in diameter than the blastocyst.
This case report describes a successful pregnancy after vitrification of a human hatched blastocyst. A 31-year-old woman, after failed stimulated and thaw cycles, underwent short-treatment protocol stimulation, and oocytes were recovered transvaginally with ultrasound guidance. Eight mature oocytes were obtained and six were fertilized with conventional IVF.
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