Test-Tube Baby Breakthrough in Canada
NewsMax.com Wires
The first test-tube baby created from an egg matured in the laboratory and then frozen has been born in Canada, in a breakthrough offering hope to women with cancer and others unsuited to normal IVF treatment.
The baby is doing well and another three women are pregnant by the same method, researchers told a medical meeting in Lyon, France, on Monday.
Conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) involves using high doses of expensive hormone drugs to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs.
But some women seeking to preserve their child-bearing capacity may not have enough time to undergo ovarian stimulation or may have a condition that makes it dangerous, such as hormone-sensitive breast cancer.
For these patients, ripening eggs in the lab - so-called in vitro maturation (IVM) - makes sense. Until now, however, scientists have never frozen, thawed and then fertilized a lab-matured egg. This multi-step process increases significantly the flexibility of fertility treatment.
"We have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to do this and, so far, we have achieved four successful pregnancies, one of which has resulted in a live birth," Hananel Holzer of the McGill Reproductive Center in Montreal said in a statement.
The research is still at an early stage and has not yet been proven in cancer patients, he told the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).
WORDS AND PHRASES
breakthrough: n. bước đột phá, bước ngoặt
cancer: n. ung thư
child-bearing capacity: np. khả năng sinh sản
demonstrate: v. trình bày, cho thấy
dose: n. liều lượng
embryology: n. phôi học/ ngành nghiên cứu phôi
fertility treatment: np. điều trị vô sinh
fertilize: v. thụ tinh
flexibility: n. tính linh hoạt
freeze (froze, frozen): v. làm đông lạnh
hormone: n. hoóc môn
IVF (abbr. Conventional in Vitro Fertilization): Thụ tinh nhân tạo thông thường
labolatory (abbr. lab): phòng thí nghiệm
mature: v. làm trưởng thành, làm chín (trứng)
method: n. phương pháp
multiple: det. nhiều, đa
ovaries: trứng (comp. ovary: noãn sào)
pregnant: adj. có thai, mang thai
preserve: v. bảo quản
prove: v. chứng minh
reproductive: adj. thuộc sinh sản
ripen: v. làm chín, ủ chín
sensitive: n. nhạy cảm, mẫn cảm
stimulate: v. kích thích
test-tube: n. ống nghiệm
thaw: v. làm tan giá, tan băng
treatment: n. điều trị
unsuited (to): adj. không phù hợp
