CULTURE AND QUALITY-CONTROL OF EMBRYOS

Improvement of embryo quality during in-vitro culture can be achieved by understanding and controlling the requirements of gametes and embry os, The most obvious route is to alter culture media, but standardizat ion could be influenced by diverse environmental factors. Abnormal emb ryos from patients with multiple failures probably do not benefit from standardization and require specialized therapy, that is if their phy siology is not already irreversibly jeopardized during gametogenesis. This paper describes the adverse environmental factors present in labo ratory air and released by common products used by laboratories, Assay s and results of the air determinations in several laboratories are re ported, as well as potential counter measures. The possibility of alte ring the immediate environment of the nucleus of the egg by ooplasmic transplantation is also considered, and the first attempts resulting i n two ongoing pregnancies are reported.