TY - JOUR TI - Association of pluripotency gene promoter methylation with the chromosomal status of products of conception DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3MS3RG4 PY - 2013 AB - Infertility affects one in six couples and often necessitates the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART). While ART is the most effective treatment, efficiency remains poor with less than 13% of transferred in vitro fertilization (IVF) derived embryos resulting in a live birth according to the Center for Disease Control. This has led to routine use of multiple embryo transfer to increase pregnancy rates. However, as a result of multiple embryo transfer, a significant proportion of IVF pregnancies involve multiples. Indeed, multiple gestation is the most common complication associated with ART and is now the primary focus of research and development in reproductive medicine. The ability to identify the embryo with true reproductive potential could overcome the need for multiple embryo transfer in order to achieve reasonable pregnancy rates from IVF. Differentiation and establishment of the trophectoderm lineage during preimplantation embryo development represents a potential target to identify new biomarkers of reproductive potential. Several gene promoters have already been shown to be differentially methylated in pluripotent versus differentiated cells. These promoters include: NANOG, PTPN6, RAB25, LYST, GBP3, MGMT, Oct4 and Elf5. The extent of methylation of these promoters was characterized after the development of a methodology for methylation sensitive restriction enzyme digestion followed by quantitative real-time PCR. Chromosomal aneuploidy is a well characterized marker of reproductive potential. The level of differentiation inferred from methylation status of these promoters was used to evaluate whether aneuploid and euploid conceptions possess unique levels of differentiation. Results indicate that GBP3 promoter methylation is significantly different in aneuploid relative to euploid conceptions supporting the concept that chromosomally normal embryos may differentiate more successfully than chromosomally abnormal embryos. KW - Biology KW - Human reproductive technology KW - Methylation LA - eng ER -