THE EFFECTS OF IGF-II ON HUMAN EMBRYO DEVELOPMENT IN-VITRO

Abstract

The goal of this project is to determine the effects of insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) on the preimplantation development of human embryos in-vitro. IGF-II is a low molecular weight peptide that has been shown to promote cellular mitosis and differentiation in a variety of cell types. There is every proof that IGF-II promotes growth in early development stages of embryos and creates a leeway in which genes manipulate development before implantation. In this study, test culture groups with different concentrations of recombinant IGF-II growth factor will be compared to a control culture group. Stage specific media will be used to culture all embryos and embryo culture will last for seven days. The effects of IGFII growth factor will be evaluated using morphology, metabolomics, and the number of inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE) cells in each embryo.