title: Significance of morphological attributes of the early embryo.
abstract: There are many morphological transformations during development of human embryos that mainly involve phenomena that can be easily assessed in living embryos by simple non-invasive microscopical observation. A clear correlation between pronuclear morphology and the ability of the resulting embryo to continue developing and to implant has been described. There is also general agreement that a positive relationship exists between early embryo morphology and implantation rate. The parameters classically involved in embryo evaluation are: cleavage rate, blastomere symmetry, cytoplasmic appearance, extent of fragmentation and blastomere nuclear status. In this paper, morphological features that have been related to embryo developmental potential are described. Furthermore, the ability of a cumulative classification scheme developed in the laboratory to predict blastocyst formation and implantation is analysed.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Reproductive Medicine, European Hospital, Via Portuense 700, 00149 Rome, Italy. rienzi@icsiroma.it
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rienzi
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ubaldi
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iacobelli
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: Maria Giulia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Minasi
authors.forename: Susanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferrero
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sapienza
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Baroni
authors.forename: Ermanno
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Greco
mesh_terms: D001757:Blastomeres / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D002970:Cleavage Stage, Ovum; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000473:pathology; D010064:Embryo Implantation; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy