This is one of a series of news items from abstracts of studies presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine as complied by Dr. David Meldrum, Scientific Director of Reproductive Partners. We appreciate the enormous amount of work it takes to compile and comment on these abstracts.

One of the most difficult issues to overcome is persistent poor embryo quality. For some time Reproductive Partners has  been using embryo co-culture (cultureing the embryos along with other cells just as occurs in the body) as one of our startegies to improve embryo quality. Now a study reported at ASRM supports this practice.

Eggs were randomized between regular culture and co-culture using autologous clusters of granulosa cells (the cells that surround the egg in that patient's body). Day 3 embryos had improved morphology, more developed to day 5 and more were chosen for transfer. As with other studies of cumulus co-culture, improved embryo morphology was confirmed. It could be considered in any case where reduced embryo morphology has been previously observed or when reduced egg quality is expected.