Embryo transplantation is a useful technique in a good number of life sciences fields, and it has been around for quite a long time. In livestock improvement and maintenance, embryo transplantation is used to transfer embryos from either a laboratory, where the embryos are conceived through artificial insemination; or from a surrogate mother, which is strong enough to withstand the stress of the early days of pregnancy, and to a recipient, which may be a species related or not to the donor parent. Such techniques ensure that embryos are cared for well and are healthy enough to withstand the stresses that they will most certainly meet up with: implanting in the womb and growing.

Embryo transplant technology is also used in in vitro fertilization in humans, where a woman who cannot conceive or does not have the means or ability to implant an embryo in her womb can have the chance to carry a child to term. Because not all embryos will implant, doctors will often place more than one embryo in a woman’s uterus during the transplantation stage, a technique that sometimes results in multiple births. In vitro fertilization, moreover, is quite controversial due to bioethics.

Nevertheless, the farming and even the wildlife conservation industries are making good use of embryo transplant technology. Through embryo transplant technology, scientists are able to keep healthy numbers of livestock breeds, or have a good number of endangered species ready to keep them propagating and alive.

Frozen Embryo Transfer Technology

There are different techniques that are involved in transferring embryos from a donor or a laboratory, and to a recipient. These embryos may be harvested fresh: that is, they can be generated from eggs that were part of an animal’s regular estrous, or menstrual cycle. An embryo may also be frozen: the laboratory may carry out the in-lab conception by allowing reproductive cells to meet; the resulting embryo can then be preserved in cold storage, and then thawed when it is needed, or when it can be implanted in a recipient uterus. This is frozen embryo transfer technology or FET.

Freezing embryos prior to implantation can be advantageous especially in in vitro fertilization. This is because the lining of the recipient’s uterus has to be prepared in order to receive the embryo and allow it to implant considerably. The recipient must also have the appropriate amounts of hormones in order for the embryo to implant, and in order for its growth to be sustained well. In order for this to occur, women who undergo in vitro fertilization are given a combination of hormonal pills so that their hormonal levels are balanced and their bodies are ready to receive the embryo. While this preparation happens, the frozen embryo is kept safe and sound in cold storage, awaiting the time when it can be placed in the mother.

Frozen embryos are also in demand for the livestock sector, and for much the same reason that human embryos are frozen. Livestock such as cows or pigs have to be made ready for the implantation; moreover, artificial insemination will often need good ancestral lines, so even the semen and ova are kept in cold storage in order to provide laboratories and farms with just the right mix of the animals that they would like.

In some cases, frozen embryos can allow embryos of livestock to be transferred from country to country. This is safer than transporting whole herds of live cattle because it lowers the risk of transmission of livestock diseases, as well as the cost that goes with having to transport the livestock. Embryos, moreover, are easier to bring up in a new environment, instead of bringing live livestock from another climate and forcing them to live in another kind of climate that they may not be used to.

Using the Embryo Transplant Microscope

In humans, embryos are frozen in a solution that protects them from being destroyed by ice crystals. Once they are thawed, they are placed in a solution, and then introduced to a mother through a catheter that leads directly into the uterus. The procedure is safe and non-invasive. In order to check for embryo integrity, however, scientists and laboratory specialists make use of the embryo transplant microscope. This microscope is actually a powerful tool that works throughout the in vitro fertilization process.

An embryo transplant microscope has high enough magnification for physicians to check if conception has indeed occurred, and at what stage an embryo is in. Embryos may be frozen at any stage of their lives. An embryo transplant microscope is also used to check for damage in frozen embryos after they have been thawed.

These are only a few facts about frozen embryo transfer technology. For more information, consult with your FET or in vitro fertilization specialist, and do more research on this subject. Original article