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Intracytoplasmic sperm injection

 
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

 
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Intracytoplasmic sperm injection
 
 
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Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI, pronounced "eeksee" or "icksy") is an in vitro fertilization procedure in which a single sperm
Spermatozoon

A sperm, from the ancient Greek word sp???a and and more commonly known as a sperm cell, is the ploidy cell that is the male gamete. It Fertilization an ovum to form a zygote....
 is injected directly into an egg
Ovum

An ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization....
. This procedure is most commonly used to overcome male infertility
Infertility

Infertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a person to contribute to fertilization. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term....
 problems, although it may also be used where eggs cannot easily be penetrated by sperm, and occasionally as a method of in vitro fertilization, especially that associated with sperm donation
Sperm donation

Sperm donation is the name of the provision by a man, known as a sperm donor, of his semen with the intention that it be used to achieve a pregnancy and produce a baby in a woman who is not the man's sexual partner and with whom the man does not have sexual intercourse....
.

The procedure is done under a microscope
Microscope

A microscope is an Laboratory equipment for viewing objects that are too small to be seen by the naked or unaided eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy....
 using multiple micromanipulation devices (micromanipulator
Micromanipulator

A micromanipulator is a device which is used to physically interact with a sample under a microscope, where a level of precision of movement is necessary that cannot be achieved by the unaided human hand....
, microinjectors
Microinjectors

A microinjector is a device which provides the pressure which is needed to deliver a sample solution from a micropipette into cells.microINJECTOR™ is a commercial product trademarked by Tritech Research....
 and micropipettes).






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Icsi
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI, pronounced "eeksee" or "icksy") is an in vitro fertilization procedure in which a single sperm
Spermatozoon

A sperm, from the ancient Greek word sp???a and and more commonly known as a sperm cell, is the ploidy cell that is the male gamete. It Fertilization an ovum to form a zygote....
 is injected directly into an egg
Ovum

An ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization....
. This procedure is most commonly used to overcome male infertility
Infertility

Infertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a person to contribute to fertilization. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term....
 problems, although it may also be used where eggs cannot easily be penetrated by sperm, and occasionally as a method of in vitro fertilization, especially that associated with sperm donation
Sperm donation

Sperm donation is the name of the provision by a man, known as a sperm donor, of his semen with the intention that it be used to achieve a pregnancy and produce a baby in a woman who is not the man's sexual partner and with whom the man does not have sexual intercourse....
.

The procedure is done under a microscope
Microscope

A microscope is an Laboratory equipment for viewing objects that are too small to be seen by the naked or unaided eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy....
 using multiple micromanipulation devices (micromanipulator
Micromanipulator

A micromanipulator is a device which is used to physically interact with a sample under a microscope, where a level of precision of movement is necessary that cannot be achieved by the unaided human hand....
, microinjectors
Microinjectors

A microinjector is a device which provides the pressure which is needed to deliver a sample solution from a micropipette into cells.microINJECTOR™ is a commercial product trademarked by Tritech Research....
 and micropipettes). A holding pipette (on the left of picture) stabilizes the mature oocyte
Oocyte

An oocyte, ovocyte, or rarely ocyte, is a female gametocyte or germ cell involved in biological reproduction. In other words, it is an immature ovum, or ovum cell....
 with gentle suction applied by a microinjector. From the opposite side a thin, hollow glass micropipette is used to collect a single sperm, having immobilised it by cutting its tail with the point of the micropipette. The micropipette is pierced through the oolemma and into the inner part of the oocyte (cytoplasm). The sperm is then released into the oocyte. The pictured oocyte has an extruded polar body
Polar body

A polar body is a cell structure found inside an ovum. Both animal and plant ova possess it. It is also known as a polar cell.Asymmetrical cell division leads to the production of polar bodies during oogenesis....
 at about 12 o'clock indicating its maturity. After the procedure, the oocyte will be placed into cell culture and checked on the following day for signs of fertilization.

In natural fertilization sperm compete and when the first sperm penetrates the oolemma, the oolemma hardens to block the entry of any other sperm. Concern has been raised that in ICSI this sperm selection process is bypassed and the sperm is selected by the embryologist without any specific testing. However, in mid 2006 the FDA cleared a device that allows embryologists to select mature sperm for ICSI based on sperm binding to hyaluronan
Hyaluronan

Hyaluronan is a non-sulfated glycosaminoglycan distributed widely throughout connective tissue, epithelial tissue, and neural tissues. It is one of the chief components of the extracellular matrix, contributes significantly to cell proliferation and migration, and may also be involved in the progression of some malignant tumors....
, the main constituent of the gel layer (cumulus oophorus
Cumulus oophorus

At one part of the mature follicle, the cells of the membrana granulosa are collected into a mass which projects into the cavity of the follicle. This cluster of cells is termed the cumulus oophorus discus proligerus, and it is released with the embedded oocyte during ovulation....
) surrounding the oocyte. The device provides microscopic droplets of hyaluronan hydrogel attached to the culture dish. The embryologist places the prepared sperm on the microdot, selects and captures sperm that bind to the dot. Basic research on the maturation of sperm shows that hyaluronan-binding sperm are more mature and show fewer DNA strand breaks and significantly lower levels of aneuploidy
Aneuploidy

Aneuploidy is defined as an abnormal number of chromosomes. Syndromes caused by an extra or missing chromosome are among the most widely recognized genetic disorders in humans....
 than the sperm population from which they were selected. A brand name for one such sperm selection device is PICSI.

There is some suggestion that birth defects are increased with the use of IVF in general, and ICSI specifically, though results of different studies differ. In a summary position paper, the Practice Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine has said it considers ICSI safe and effective therapy for male factor infertility, but may carry an increased risk for the transmission of selected genetic abnormalities to offspring, either through the procedure itself or through the increased inherent risk of such abnormalities in parents undergoing the procedure.

See also

  • Reproductive technology
    Reproductive technology

    Reproductive technology encompasses all current and anticipated uses of technology in human and animal reproduction, including assisted reproductive technology, contraception and others....