Serious Limitation of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis

抄録

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is the technology used to avoid inheritance of genetic disease by selecting unaffected embryos. Furthermore PGD has made genetic screening of embryos possible. The limited number of cells available for genetic tests has been a serious problem with PGD. The first solution was the application of molecular technologies such as PCR, FISH and cell recycling. The next solution was the visualization of metaphase plates and application of advanced FISH technologies. The ideal solution was in vitro culture of blastomeres to increase the number of cells because it would be easy to reexamine them to assure the accuracy of genetic test results and obtain additional genetic information. The culture system for ES cells was applied to culturing mouse isolated blastomeres because it met two requirements: rapid proliferation and maintenance of the normal karyotype during culture. Our trial with mouse embryos successfully demonstrated these two requirements.