title: Pregnancy derived from human zygote pronuclear transfer in a patient who had arrested embryos after IVF.
abstract: Nuclear transfer of an oocyte into the cytoplasm of another enucleated oocyte has shown that embryogenesis and implantation are influenced by cytoplasmic factors. We report a case of a 30-year-old nulligravida woman who had two failed IVF cycles characterized by all her embryos arresting at the two-cell stage and ultimately had pronuclear transfer using donor oocytes. After her third IVF cycle, eight out of 12 patient oocytes and 12 out of 15 donor oocytes were fertilized. The patient's pronuclei were transferred subzonally into an enucleated donor cytoplasm resulting in seven reconstructed zygotes. Five viable reconstructed embryos were transferred into the patient's uterus resulting in a triplet pregnancy with fetal heartbeats, normal karyotypes and nuclear genetic fingerprinting matching the mother's genetic fingerprinting. Fetal mitochondrial DNA profiles were identical to those from donor cytoplasm with no detection of patient's mitochondrial DNA. This report suggests that a potentially viable pregnancy with normal karyotype can be achieved through pronuclear transfer. Ongoing work to establish the efficacy and safety of pronuclear transfer will result in its use as an aid for human reproduction.
authors: Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Beijing, China; New Hope Fertility Center, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: johnzhang211@gmail.com.
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Science, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Guanglun
authors: G
authors: Zhuang
authors: Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Science, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Yong
authors: Y
authors: Zeng
authors: New York University School of Medicine, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, New York, NY, USA.
authors: Jamie
authors: J
authors: Grifo
authors: Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Science, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Carlo
authors: C
authors: Acosta
authors: Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Science, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Yimin
authors: Y
authors: Shu
authors: Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Beijing, China; New Hope Fertility Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors: Hui
authors: H
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D000069321:Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D019233:Retreatment; D017211:Treatment Failure
keywords: cytoplasm; nucleus; oocyte; pronuclear transfer; zygote