Alterations of miR-16, miR-let-7a and their target genes expression in human blastocysts following vitrification and re-vitrification

Embryo cryopreservation is a widely used technique in infertility management and today is an essential part of assisted reproductive technology (ART). In some cases, re-vitrification can be applied to good quality supernumerary warmed embryos that have not been transferred in the present cycle. However, there is no study about re-vitrification impact on microRNA and gene expression in human embryos. The purpose of this study is to evaluate miR-16, miR-let7a and target genes expression in in vitro produced human blastocysts following re-vitrification.Day3 embryos obtained from ICSI cycles of fertile couples referring for family balancing program were biopsied and cultured individually. On the fourth day (post-ICSI) male ones (choices of their parents) were transferred and the females (good quality embryos) were donated for research. Donated embryos were cultured to blastocyst stage and assigned to three groups: fresh, vitrified and re-vitrification. Embryos were vitrified on Cryotech carriers. Then blastocysts of three groups were individually assessed for expression of miR-16, miR-let7a and target genes.The results showed that re-vitrification of human blastocysts did not affect the ability to re-expand in culture. In addition, significant decrease was observed in miR-16 and miR-let7a expression in re-vitrified group compared to fresh (p < 0.05). A significant upregulation of the target genes ITGβ3 and BCL-2 in re-vitrified and vitrified embryos was observed compared to the fresh group (p < 0.05). The expression of BAX as a pro-apoptotic gene showed a significant decrease in re-vitrification group comparing with the fresh one (P < 0.05).The results of this research indicated that re-vitrification of embryos changes the expression of miR-16, miR-let-7a and their target genes. These alterations include increased expression of BCl-2 and ITGβ3 genes which play important roles in embryo survival and implantation, respectively. Clinical proof of these effects requires further research.

Parental Reproductive Liberty for Choosing the Sex of Their Offspring: an Analysis of the Positions in Muslim Law and Christianity

Technological developments in the domain of fertility treatment in spite of thier utilitarian uses come with a plethora of ethico-religious challenges for people of faith particularly if they contradict some of their core religious values and beliefs about human procreation. The most disruptive among such challenges is declaring parental choice of a specific gender to their future offspring as part of their reproductive liberty (right). As to how major semitic religions, such as Christionaity and Islam respond to it, the answer is polemical. Christianity genrally objects to it mainly because it turns procreation into a manufacturing business instead of leaving the sex of a baby to God. The Islamic position, on the other hand, is less rigid as the majority of Sunni Muslim legists, without much reflections on its ethical dilemmas, approve it not only for medical reason but also family balancing while dissenting views among them consider it a direct affront on what God has declard to be His domain of perfection of human procreation. This paper, therefore, argues that defining parents` decision on sexing a “right” or “liberty” is difficult to maintain unless a far-fetched perspective of scriptural texts is adopted.

“Family Balancing”

Doctors and patients confront decisions of whether to perform “positive selection”—to choose embryos for various socially desired characteristics—most commonly sex but also deafness and dwarfism. Physicians routinely screen embryos for sex not only to prevent the transmission of serious sex-associated diseases (e.g., autism) but also for “family balancing”—though differing widely in how they define this concept. University-affiliated clinics tend to consult formal external ethics committees about these issues, while free-standing private clinics do not. While many countries explicitly prohibit social sex selection, US providers regularly perform it, raising concerns about a possible “slippery slope” toward eugenics. In the near future, screening for genes associated with other non-medical “desired traits” such as blond hair and blue eyes will probably also be developed and requested. Providers and patients wrestle with whether certain types of embryo selection might restrict a child’s “open future” and ability to make key choices for him- or herself, as well as how to uphold the child’s best interests.

Pink and Blue: Assemblages of Family Balancing and the Making of Dubai as a Fertility Destination

Selective reproductive technologies (SRTs), such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis, enable enhanced clinical success rates, create reproductive choices, and produce new commercial opportunities. Drawing upon empirical material acquired during a ten-month period in 2016, this study uses a total of twenty-two in-depth interviews with doctors, CEOs, clinical directors, marketing directors, patient counselors, and embryologists to discuss how traveling for the SRT of gender selection for nonmedical reasons is mediated by fertility clinics and clinicians in Dubai. Multimodal analysis was used to analyze the clinical websites’ key rhetorical and visual features. Meanwhile, interviews and observational studies highlighted the context within which gender selection takes place. Findings revealed that gender selection is promoted as a form of “enhancement” and “family balance,” which, when combined with the ways that Dubai is assembled as a sensory (fertility) tourist destination, routinize SRTs and lead to an understanding of gender selection as not merely an individualized reproductive journey but an optimization of the family unit.

South Africa’s hybrid care regime: The changing and contested roles of individuals, families and the state after apartheid

The post-apartheid state in South Africa inherited a care regime that historically combined liberal, social democratic and conservative features. The post-apartheid state has sought to deracialise the care regime, through extending to the African majority the privileges that hitherto had been largely confined to the white minority, and to transform it, to render it more appropriate to the needs and norms of the African majority. Deracialisation proved insufficient and transformation too limited to address inequalities in access to care. Reform also generated tensions, including between a predominant ideology that accords women and children rights as autonomous individuals, the widespread belief in kinship obligations and an enduring if less widespread conservative, patriarchal ideology. Ordinary people must navigate between the market (if they can afford it), the state and the family, balancing opportunities for independence with the claims made on and by kin. The care regime thus remains a contested hybrid.