TILT: Time-Lapse Imaging Trial-a pragmatic, multi-centre, three-arm randomised controlled trial to assess the clinical effectiveness and safety of time-lapse imaging in in vitro fertilisation treatment.

Background: Subfertility is a common problem for which in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment is commonly recommended. Success rates following IVF are suboptimal and have remained static over the last few years. This imposes a considerable financial burden on overstretched healthcare resources.

Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and embryo quality assessed by time-lapse imaging (TLI): a cross-sectional observational study.

Purpose: Serum anti-Mullerian hormone shows a strong positive correlation to the quantitative ovarian reserve but its correlation to embryo quality is unclear. This study assessed the association between serum AMH as a marker of ovarian reserve and embryo quality, using the technology of time-lapse imaging of the embryos in women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.

Methods: 304 embryos from 198 women undergoing IVF were included in the study.

A pragmatic RCT of conventional versus increased concentration sucrose in freezing and thawing solutions for human embryos.

Background: Intact frozen-thawed embryos have a greater potential than damaged embryos to establish successful pregnancies. This study aimed to determine whether elevated concentrations of sucrose during freezing would increase the proportion of patients with ≥ 50% of embryos intact after thawing (primary outcome), and improve clinical outcome.

Methods: In a two arm, parallel group, pragmatic trial, IVF/ICSI couples were randomized prospectively to have their supernumerary embryos frozen in a medium containing 0.

Fatty acid metabolism in human preimplantation embryos.

Background: Little is known of fatty acid metabolism in human embryos. This information would be useful in developing metabolic tests of embryo quality and improving embryo culture media.

Methods: The fatty acid composition of human embryos and their ability to accumulate 13C labelled fatty acids was assessed in relation to the stage of development using gas-chromatography and combustion-isotope-ratio-mass spectrometry.

Cryopreservation of human oocytes and fertilization by two techniques: in-vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Human oocyte cryopreservation results in poor survival and subsequent fertilization rates. It has been suggested that freeze-thaw-induced changes in the zona pellucida may impair sperm penetration or attachment. The aim of this study was to compare fertilization and cleavage rates in cryopreserved oocytes inseminated by conventional in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

A comparison of the effects of different biopsy strategies on the post-thaw survival of 8-cell-stage mouse embryos: implications for preimplantation diagnosis.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two different biopsy strategies, zona slitting and zona piercing, on the post-thaw survival and subsequent in-vitro development of 8-cell mouse embryos. From control experiments it was determined that neither biopsy by zona slitting nor zona piercing adversely affected embryo development in vitro, as similar rates of blastocyst formation and hatching were found between biopsied and zona-intact embryos; there was, however, a trend towards a lower rate of blastocyst hatching in embryos biopsied by zona piercing (78.3% compared with 91.