Proteomic analysis of individual human embryos to identify novel biomarkers of development and viability

Abstract

Objective: To develop a method to analyze the proteome of individual human blastocysts and identify differentially expressed proteins prior to implantation. Design: Experimental study. Setting: Research environment. Patient(s): Couples undergoing infertility treatment donated with consent cryopreserved human cleavage-stage embryos for research. Intervention(s): Individual embryos were extracted and analyzed by time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Main Outcome Measure(s): The protein expression profiles of individual embryos. Result(s): Differential protein expression profiles were observed between early and expanded blastocysts, as well as between developing blastocysts and degenerate embryos. ..