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Sci Tech
Tests launched on more natural alternative to IVF
IAN SAMPLE
The new treatment mostly replaces the Petri dish Culturing embryos more naturally is more risk-free
The world’s first trial of a fertility treatment designed to be more natural than IVF is to be launched in Britain soon. The treatment, called in vivo development, or IVD, aims to take the test tube out of the test tube baby process by allowing fertilised eggs to develop in the mother’s womb rather than a dish in the lab.
Pilot study
The year-long trialfollows a successful small-scale pilot study in Belgium, which suggested the new technique led to better quality embryos with fewer abnormalities.
Simon Fishel, who will lead the British arm of the trial at the CARE Group of fertility clinics in Nottingham, said IVD promised to be a more natural way for fertilised eggs to grow and may result in healthier embryos.
“If we can replace the lab with the womb for 90 per cent of the IVF process, then for me this will be a new era in IVF. For the majority of IVF patients, there is a prospect that this will be the way to go,” he said.
In the normal IVF process, eggs are fertilised with sperm and allowed to grow in a dish containing chemicals and nutrients, which simulate the biological conditions in the reproductive tract. After four days or so in culture, the embryos are ready to implant in the woman’s womb.
The new treatment replaces the Petri dish almost completely.
Instead, each freshly fertilised egg is inserted into a perforated silicone capsule less than 1mm wide, which is placed into the womb through the cervix using a thread-like wire.
There, holes in the capsule allow hormones and other chemicals in the mother’s womb to surround the embryo as it grows without it attaching to the lining.
Implantation
A few days later, the capsule is removed so the embryo can be implanted into the womb as usual.
Fishel said: “The reproductive tract is the optimal environment for the fertilised egg, but we haven’t yet managed to simulate it perfectly in the lab, because we don’t know all the components that are needed. But we do know that embryos and the womb communicate with each other chemically, so culturing them more naturally has got to be more risk-free.”
Fishel’s team is looking for 40 couples to take part in the trial. The results will be combined with those from European clinics later in the year.
Hormone therapy
If early data indicate a success, the treatment may be opened up to all patients attending the clinic.
Women will receive standard hormone therapy to stimulate their ovaries to produce eggs, which will then be fertilised in the usual way. The eggs will be divided into two groups.
One set will be cultured in the lab according to standard IVF procedures, while the others will be grown inside the womb using IVD.
The sibling embryos will be compared to see which technique produces the healthiest embryos. The women will be implanted with the best quality embryos.
“The pilot study suggested that embryos grown by this technique have more cells, are higher quality, and have fewer chromosomal abnormalities, but we need to conduct this trial to see if there’s a true benefit,” Fishel said.
— Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
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