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Improved Development of Very-Poor-Quality Human Preembryos by Coculture with Human Fallopian Ampullary Cells

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Abstract

Purpose: To determine whether a confluent culture of fallopian ampullary epithelial cells, taken from women at the end of their reproductive life, is capable of rescuing very-poor-quality preembryos from cleavage arrest and/or degeneration.

Methods: Human preembryos, rejected for transfer or freezing because of very poor quality, and arrested within 24 h of cleavage, were cultured for 5 days in medium alone or over a confluent culture of fallopian ampullary epithelial cells. Morphological criteria were utilized to assess preembryo degeneration and stage of development.

Results: The described coculture rescued preembryos from degeneration, enhancing development to the blastocyst stage 2.2-fold, compared with cultures in medium alone. Furthermore, fully expanded and hatching blastocysts were observed only under coculture conditions.

Conclusions: Very-poor-quality human preembryos may be rescued from degeneration, and their growth and development dramatically improved, when cocultured with a confluent culture of fallopian ampullary epithelial cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faulkner Institute for Reproductive Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts

    Amnon Weichselbaum, Machelle M. Seibel & Shalom Bar-Ami

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel

    Yoav Paltieli

  3. Caritas-Norwood Hospital, Norwood, Massachusetts

    Ralph Philosoph

  4. Repromedix Corporation, Woburn, Massachusetts

    Benjamin Rivnay

  5. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Raymond Coleman

  6. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Boston City Hospital and Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts

    Shalom Bar-Ami

Authors
  1. Amnon Weichselbaum
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  2. Yoav Paltieli
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  3. Ralph Philosoph
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  4. Benjamin Rivnay
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  5. Raymond Coleman
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  6. Machelle M. Seibel
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  7. Shalom Bar-Ami
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Correspondence to Shalom Bar-Ami.

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Weichselbaum, A., Paltieli, Y., Philosoph, R. et al. Improved Development of Very-Poor-Quality Human Preembryos by Coculture with Human Fallopian Ampullary Cells. J Assist Reprod Genet 19, 7–13 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014002404950

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014002404950

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