(Press-News.org) PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Given the stakes of in vitro fertilization, prospective parents and their doctors need the best information they can get about the eggs they will extract, attempt to fertilize, and implant. New research at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island has found a way to see which genes each egg cell is expressing without harming it. As researchers learn more about how those genes affect embryo development, the new technique could ultimately give parents and doctors a preview of which eggs are likely to make the most viable embryos.
In the research, now in press in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the team of physicians and biologists were able to sequence the transcribed genetic material, or mRNA, in egg cells and, in a scientific first, in smaller structures pinched off from them called "polar bodies." By comparing the gene expression sequences in polar bodies and their host eggs, the researchers were able to determine that the polar bodies offer a faithful reflection of the eggs' genetic activity.
"We can now consider the polar body a natural cytoplasmic biopsy," said study co-author Sandra Carson, professor obstetrics and gynecology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and director of the Center for Reproduction and Infertility at Women & Infants Hospital.
Polar bodies are where egg cells dispense with the second copies of chromosomes that, as sex cells, they don't need. But the polar bodies also capture a microcosm of the egg's mRNA, the genetic material produced when genes have been transcribed and a cell is set to make proteins based on those genetic instructions.
Pairs of genes
Last year the team became the first to find mRNA in human polar bodies. Now they have transcribed it in 22 pairs of human eggs and their polar bodies, and confirmed that what is in the polar bodies is a good proxy for what is in the eggs.
Given how little mRNA is present in polar bodies, the task was not easy, said Gary Wessel, professor of biology, but through a combination of clever amplification and analysis techniques by lead author and graduate student Adrian Reich and second author Peter Klatsky, the team got it done.
"There's no reason this should have worked, just because there was so little material," Wessel said. "Single-cell sequencing is very challenging."
To hedge their bets the team analyzed most of their samples in two pools of 10 cells each, for instance comparing the mRNA in 10 eggs with the mRNA in the 10 related polar bodies. But to their pleasant surprise, they were also able to sequence two individual eggs and their polar bodies directly.
What they found is that more than 14,000 genes can be expressed in the eggs. Of those, more than 90 percent of the genes detected in the polar bodies were also detected in the eggs and of the 700 most abundant genes found in the polar bodies, 460 were also among the most abundant in the eggs.
Toward clinical use
"It seems that the polar body does reflect what is in the egg," Carson said. "Because the egg is the major driver of the first three days of human embryo development, what we find in the polar body may give us a clue into what is happening during that time."
But Carson and Wessel acknowledged that more research will be required to create a clinically useful tool.
Finding which genes affect embryo viability is the next major step. With the new knowledge and techniques developed in their study, the researchers said, scientists could analyze the mRNA from polar bodies of eggs that are fertilized and track the progress of the resulting embryos. Once the key genes are known, they could create fast assays to look for those genes in polar bodies so that clinicians and patients could pick the best eggs. A sufficiently developed technology could also be used for choosing which eggs to bank for later use.
"We don't quite have the answer of what those messages are doing exactly or necessarily the purpose of them in the cell function, but that's to come," Carson said. "Now we have the words, but not the sentences."
INFORMATION:
The research was funded by seed grants from the Brown University Office of the Provost, the Center of Excellence in Women's Health of Women & Infants Hospital, and Sigma-Aldrich, a research reagent supplier.
END
With Breast Cancer Awareness Month already in full-swing, TonerGreen.com, an online leader in American made, remanufactured printer supplies, will be doing their part in supporting the fight against breast cancer.
From October 10-21, TonerGreen.com will donate 5% of every sale to breast cancer research. Every sale will help fund program services, research, public health education, treatment, screening and other services that will help to prevent breast cancer and to eventually find a cure. On top of the 5% donation, TonerGreen.com will also show their appreciation to ...
Civilized human cohabitation requires us to respect elementary social norms. We guarantee compliance with these norms with our willingness to punish norm violations – often even at our own expense. This behavior goes against our own economic self-interest and requires us to control our egoistic impulses.
Innovative combination of methods
In collaboration with Professor Ernst Fehr, Dr. Thomas Baumgartner and Professor Daria Knoch reveal the neuronal networks behind self-control in an article recently published in Nature Neuroscience. For the purposes of their study, ...
Where you live could play a larger role in health disparities than originally thought, according to a new study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They examined a racially integrated, low-income neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland and found that, with the exception of smoking, nationally reported disparities in hypertension, diabetes, obesity among women and use of health services disappeared or narrowed. The results are featured in the October 2011 issue of Health Affairs.
"Most of the current health disparities literature fails ...
Dailydeals4you.com announces attractive discounts on two of the most sought-after Kaspersky products - Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and Kaspersky PURE Total Security. The website offers $15 off Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 plus an additional 10% discount. It also provides a whopping 30% discount on Kaspersky PURE Total Security.
Dailydeals4you.com recognizes the need for top quality, yet affordable security software. The company has set itself a goal to search the market for any available discounts on Kaspersky security software and offer great deals for its ...
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist has developed a partnership with colleagues in South Africa that is improving prospects for cattle breeders in that African nation--and could improve them for breeders around the world.
Efforts by Mike MacNeil, an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) geneticist at the agency's Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory in Miles City, Mont., are designed to equip South Africa's scientists with better research tools to help cattle breeders and farmers in remote, underdeveloped areas. ARS is USDA's principal intramural ...
WASHINGTON – Children as young as 3 are likely to say that things made by humans have owners, but that natural objects, such as pine cones and sea shells, are not owned, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.
"Determining whether an unfamiliar object is owned is very important because it shows us that young children can decide when they're allowed to take or handle something," said the study's lead author, psychologist Karen Neary, PhD, of Waterloo University in Canada. "This article provides the first evidence about how children ...
Jordan Executive Travel Service (JETS), as a member of Signature Travel Network, is now offering Food Network Travel guided vacations in Italy, France and Northern California. Launching in 2012 and open for booking, these tour packages complement the previously launched Caribbean and Mediterranean Food Network at Sea cruises.
Food Network Travel's guided vacations will be operated by Trafalgar and have been developed in association with Signature Travel Network and Food Network to bring foodie clients on highly customized culinary land vacations as seen through the lens ...
Steatite Embedded are pleased to announce the next generation VIA EPIA-M720 Mini-ITX board. Featuring the VIA VX900 MSP, the VIA EPIA-M720 is an upgrade from the popular VIA EPIA-LN delivering DDR3 and SATA II support for greater performance, richer digital media and extended connectivity for embedded devices.
Combining a VIA 1.0GHz C7 processor with the VIA VX900 unified all-in-one media system processor, the VIA EPIA-M720 delivers a highly optimized platform that boasts comprehensive HD video performance, HD audio and HDMI support in a compact, power-efficient package ...
DURHAM, N.H. – A technology commonly used to map the bottom of the deep ocean can also detect gas seeps in the water column with remarkably high fidelity, according to scientists from the University of New Hampshire and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This finding, made onboard the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer in the Gulf of Mexico, will lead to more effective mapping of these gas seeps and, ultimately, enhanced understanding of our ocean environments.
The mapping technology, multibeam sonar, is an echo-sounding technology that surveys a wide, ...
Picking up where he left off in 2010, Aric Almirola has had a solid 2011 season behind the wheel of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet http://www.jrmracing.com/ and is currently fourth overall in the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship points standings.
"2010 was an outstanding year for DIRECTUS and what a great way to keep the momentum rolling for the 2011 SEMA show than to team back up with Aric," said Brad Chapple, DIRECTUS CEO. "Last year we were able to win the coveted SEMA "Best New Product" for Mobile Electronics, we had an excellent ...
