Healthy Egg Testing? Technological Advances in Identifying Healthy Eggs

How do you know if you have healthy eggs? Can you still use your eggs or is there a better, healthier option for conceiving a healthy embryo and healthy child?  The article by Drs. Patrizio and Dr. Dagan Wells continues an important trend aimed at identifying natural genetic processes involved with the production of healthy eggs.

We have known for some time that the egg depends on the “nurse”, or cumulus, cells surrounding it for support and nourishment. If the cumulus is abnormal, the egg may develop abnormally and poorly, leading to infertility, chromosomally abnormal embryos, and possibly miscarriage.  In the following article, two genes associated with healthy eggs have been identified. In the future, cumulus cells may be used to select the most promising egg and with more research, ways to improve cumulus function in order to promote the growth of more healthy eggs will likely  be discovered.

The senior author, Dr. Dagan Wells of Oxford University has collaborated with fertility specialist Dr. John Jain, at Santa Monica Fertility and the Egg Freezing Center, on a variety of research projects aimed at deciphering egg quality and identifying cancer genes within the egg.

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