1. Imaging human embryo development and predicting developmental potential.
Imaging human embryo development and predicting developmental potential. (A) Timeline of human embryo development from the zygote to the blastocyst stage, highlighting critical times between stages that predict successful development. (B) Molecular events and time-lapse images of human embryo development. ESSP1 describes maternally inherited oocyte mRNAs destined for degradation, ESSP4 genes are stably expressed, and ESSP2 refers to a set of embryonic activated genes. (C) Automated tracking demonstrates modeling via computer algorithms to predict success or failure. (D) Critical features that influence developmental success include the duration of first cytokinesis, the time between the first and second mitotic division, and the synchronicity of appearance of the third and fourth blastomeres. (E) Potential application of prediction of embryo developmental potential in ART. Figure reproduced with permission from Wong et al. (Wong et al., 2010).
Kathy K. Niakan et al. Development 2012;139:
© 2012.