Rocking Embryos Lead To Better IVF Success

(MYFOX NATIONAL) – Researchers think a little rock-a-bye baby motion may help couples with infertility problems have children.

Scientists believe they increased the success of in vitro fertilization in mice by more than 20 percent by gently rocking embryos while they grew, according to LiveScience.com .

Their hope is that the attempt to mimic the motion of the human body may someday help improve in vitro fertilization of human embryos, according to HealthDayNews .

The scientists built a device to simulate the motion that embryos experience in the body as they make their way down a mammal's fallopian tube. It is a change from placing eggs fertilized with sperm in a culture dish and leaving them to grow for several days before placing them in the uterus.

About 77 percent of the rocked mouse embryos led to ongoing pregnancies while about 55 percent of the embryos left alone did the same. About 83 percent of a control group of mouse embryos conceived naturally and grown within the oviduct or fallopian tube were successful, according to the University of Michigan, where the research was conducted .

"By making the cells feel more at home, we get better cells, which is key to having better infertility treatment," stated study co-author Shu Takayama, an associate professor in the University of Michigan's department of biomedical engineering, in the University of Michigan press release.

Co-author Gary Smith, associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the U-M Medical Center, stated that in vitro fertilization or IVF can cost $15,000 per cycle and is often not covered by insurance. He stated that it has a success rate of about 35 percent.

"If we could increase that, even just to 45 percent, that's significant," Smith stated in the press release. "We're making healthier embryos, which not only can improve pregnancy rates, but also could allow us to transfer fewer embryos per cycle and reduce the incidence of twins and triplets.”

Human clinical trials have begun through Incept Biosystems, a company Takayama and Smith founded.