A new technique to improve in-vitro fertilization.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Doctors in Canada have delivered a baby using a new technique that some experts think can dramatically improve the success rate of in-vitro fertilization.
Now 22 days old, Zain Rajani was born through a new method that relies on the discovery that women have, in their own ovaries, a possible solution to infertility caused by poor egg quality, according to Time Magazine: pristine stem cells of healthy, yet-to-be developed eggs that can help make a woman’s older eggs act young again.
In May 2014, Zain’s mother, Natasha Rajani, now 34, had a small sliver of her ovarian tissue removed in a quick laproscopic procedure at First Steps Fertility in Toronto, Canada, where she lives. Scientists from OvaScience, then identified and removed the egg stem cells and purified them to extract their mitochondria, Time reported. OvaScience calls the procedure “Augment.”
“Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, a molecular battery that energizes everything a cell does.” Adding the mitochondria from the egg quasi-developed cells to Natasha’s poor-quality eggs along with sperm from her husband, Omar, dramatically improved their IVF results.
Time disclosed the Rajanis had tried for four years to get pregnant, turning to fertility drugs, intrauterine insemination, and a naturopath before trying their first attempt at IVF. Natasha became pregnant once, but miscarried a few weeks later.
“I tried to remain positive, thinking there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that a baby will be there at the end,” she said of all the misses.
Augment is not currently available in the U.S., since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers the process of introducing mitochondria a form of gene therapy, which it regulates. To date, some three dozen women in four countries have tried the technique, and eight are currently pregnant, revealed Time.
Numerous reproductive experts are still skeptical of the procedure due to its nascence, and OvaScience plans to conduct 1000 cycles using Augment this year in order to generate more data that they hope will help introduce the procedure to the United States.
“We see Zain as a symbol of hope for all couples struggling with infertility,” Natasha told Time. “While the process is long, emotional and physically draining, there is light at the end of the tunnel—and that light for us is Zain.”