Epigenetics in assisted reproductive technology.

It has been reported that the rates of epigenetic disorders such as Angelman syndrome (AS) and Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) are high in offspring conceived by assisted reproductive technology (ART). Angelman Syndrome is characterized by intellectual disability and BWS is known as large offspring syndrome (LOS). Weight abnormalities have also been reported in cloned animals.

Effect of oocyte transportation time on the clinical results of transport fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer.

In transport assisted reproductive technology (ART), the time taken to transport oocytes to the main center differs greatly among the satellite facilities and may influence the clinical results. For the conventional fertilization (IVF) groups in which oocytes were collected at the satellite facilities and transported to the main ART center for insemination and embryo transfer, there were 29 cycles in 27 patients with a transportation time within 60 min (short time transport IVF (ST-IVF)), 78 cycles in 62 patients with a time between 60 and 120 min (long time transport IVF (LT-IVF)), and there were 141 cycles in 110 patients at the main ART center (center IVF (C-IVF)). For the intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) group, there were 65 ST-ICSI cycles in 42 patients, 146 LT-ICSI cycles in 97 patients, and 326 cycles in 238 patients at the main ART center (C-ICSI).