Culture systems and blastocyst development

Abstract

Since the birth of the first in vitro fertilization (IVF) baby in 1978, there have been numerous developments in the field of human assisted reproductive technologies (ART), including the development of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to treat male factor infertility and the development and application of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Implantation rate, however, which is one of the rate-limiting factors, has remained relatively static. Implantation rates of 10–30% have been reported in the literature for the transfer of cleavage stage embryos conceived through IVF. These values are somewhat below the 60% implantation rate reported by Buster and colleagues (1), who were able to t..