Silicon makes test tube embryos uterus more viable

Silicon incubates mothers womb embryos inside the body.

By the number of people around the world affected by infertility who want to have their own biological children and a family, the only option is in vitro fertilization (IVF). With typical IVF, eggs are collected by a woman on a massive scale and then fertilized in a laboratory dish. The dish requires maintenance every few hours to keep waste materials out of nutrients and keep fresh embryo has to develop.

After a two-to five-day incubation period, the healthy embryos are transferred to the uterus in the hope of a successful pregnancy. The process has a success rate according to some sources only 30%. Trials of a new array of silicon has been starting in the UK and the researchers expect the device will reduce the number of eggs needed for IVF and increase the chances of a pregnancy.

The belly of silicon allows embryos created in the laboratory to be placed inside a tube of silicon perforated and implanted into the woman’s body. NewScientist reports that the silicon uterus is about 5 mm long and less than 1 mm wide with walls that are drilled with 360 holes about 40 microns in diameter.

Once the lab loading tube embryo is implanted tube through the cervix into the uterus of a woman. The tiny holes allow the normal uterine fluids to reach the embryos providing a more natural environment for them to grow.

Forty women are being recruited for a trial of the matrix of silicon and every woman will have eight to twelve eggs harvested - half of the resulting embryos are incubated in the laboratory and the other half inside the uterus silicon. The researchers say that half of the participants will have his belly silicon eliminated after two days, the embryos will be verified by genetic defects and the rest of the volunteers will have left silicon wombs for four days.

Simon Fishel, the man leading the trial CARE fertility in the United Kingdom, said that the tests were encouraging, but not conclusive. Fishel told NewScientist: “We will be able to directly compare the results of in vitro and in vivo techniques.”

Fishel continues by saying, “We really do not know the full environmental conditions of the reproductive tract. Also is a dynamic environment that is constantly changing, and we can not repeat that.”

Even if the silicon belly of the works, it is still not ideal according to the researchers. In a normal pregnancy the embryo develops inside the fallopian tube during the typical seven days it takes to move from the ovary to the uterus.