Jumpstarting Embryos

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is being used by more and more couples wanting to start a family. Yet, only 1 in 4 treatment rounds in Europe result in pregnancy. This inefficiency is linked to the fact that two-thirds of embryos created during IVF inexplicably stop growing. But scientists may be starting to understand why. By looking at which genes were switched on or off in growth-arrested embryos (pictured), there were two broad reasons why. Either the embryo failed to start making proteins from its own DNA (highlighted in blue) or they didn’t make the crucial shift in how they obtain their energy. When researchers treated these embryos with resveratrol, a small molecule that can activate enzymes called SIRTs (green) to modulate metabolism, over half recommenced development. This could help doctors increase the number of embryos a couple could have available to them in each round of IVF.

Written by Sophie Arthur

Sophie Arthur

former Science Communications Officer MRC LMS

Formerly a stem cell biologist, Sophie has since moved into science communication working at the MRC LMS. She also writes an award winning science and education blog Soph talks science.

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• Image from work by Yang Yang and Liyang Shi, and colleagues
• Center for Reproductive Medicine, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai & Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Systems Biology, Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Biology, June 2022