IVF Breakthrough

Scientists find a new way to create more eggs for older women.

19:13 10 November 2016

Researchers from Oregon and the Salk Institute in California had a major IVF breakthrough after finding a new way to create more eggs for older women. In their research, they found that more eggs can be harvested from polar bodies – small cells which form as waste products when cells divide and contain the same genetic material. Polar bodies can become eggs when transplanted into an empty cell. Researchers were able to create embryo after fertilising them with sperm. 

 

The study's co-author Hong Ma, from Oregon Health and Science University, explained: 'Normally, polar bodies disintegrate and disappear during egg development.

 

'We were able to recycle them. We hope that by doing this, we can double the number of patient eggs available for in vitro fertilization (IVF).'

 

The study is major breakthrough as older women’s eggs fall rapidly in number after the age of 35, which significantly affect their chances of getting pregnant or having baby on their own through IVF. 

 

Professor Dagan Wells, associate professor at Oxford University's NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, said: 'The work is technically impressive and may, in the future, provide another option for patients hoping to avoid of conditions caused by the inheritance of defective mitochondria.

 

'It is particularly interesting that the scientists involved were able to use the genetic material from the polar body, a cell which is discarded by the egg as it matures and is traditionally thought of as being little more than a dustbin for the chromosomes that the egg needs to discard in order to make way for those that will be delivered by the sperm.'