New techniques on embryo manipulation

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Abstract

For many years, experience has been accumulated on embryo and gamete manipulation in livestock animals. The present work is a review of these techniques and their possible application in human embryology in specific cases. It is possible to manipulate gametes at different levels, producing paternal or maternal haploid embryos (hemicloning), using different techniques including nuclear transfer. At the embryonic stage, considering pratical, ethical and legal issues, techniques will be reviewed that include cloning and embryo splitting at the cleavage stage, morula, or blastocyst stage.

Introduction

Embryo manipulation techniques, such as in vitro culture, pre-implantational embryo diagnosis, as well as embryo cryopreservation, have allowed us to apply innovative strategies in assisted human reproduction; nevertheless, the gamete and embryo multiplication are two new potential technologies to consider.

This paper presents current knowledge concerning embryo multiplication techniques used in livestock production and discusses some possible applications in humans.

Section snippets

Gamete multiplication

Gamete multiplication or hemicloning technology refers to obtaining either haploid paternal or maternal embryos in such a way that blastomeres from a single embryo should be considered as a clone of the original gamete (mice, Surani et al., 1986 rabbits, Escribá and Garcı́a-Ximénez, 2001). However, due to the imprinting phenomenon, these uniparental embryos exhibit limited development and never give rise into normal offspring. ‘Imprinting’ is a process that leads to the silencing of a gene on

Embryo multiplication

Embryo multiplication refers to cloning embryos by NT or by embryo splitting technologies.

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