Register for The World's First 'Ice Baby' Grows Up
(MMD Newswire)
March 19, 2009 --
It is twenty five years ago that the first baby from a frozen embryo came into
the world. Zoe Leyland was born at the Queen Victoria Medical Centre in
Melbourne, Australia on 28 March 1984, helped on her way by Dr Alan Trounson and
Dr Carl Wood who made medical history. The decision to try 'test tube'
fertilization and embryo freezing was taken by them and Zoe's parents - mother a
33 year old New Zealander and father a 38 year old British born Australian
resident. Her mother had hormonal stimulation and produced eleven eggs which
were frozen using a then new type of controlled rate freezer made by London
company Planer plc. One of those frozen embryos became Zoe - who weighed in at
about 5 lbs or 2.5 kilos. Zoe and Professor Trounson set a bit of a trend and
since then, of the three million or so babies born via assisted reproduction IVF
techniques, some 20% or about 600,000 have been created from frozen embryos.
The world's first 'fresh' test tube baby was Louise Brown born in England in
1978, but Zoe came from an embryo that had been frozen for a time before being
thawed and implanted. To allow cells to survive liquid nitrogen temperatures
(-196°C) the embryos had to be treated with cryo-protectant, then frozen down in
the Planer freezer with extreme precision using different temperature ramps,
before they could be stored in liquid nitrogen. This controlled rate freezing
procedure was a breakthrough in 1984 but is now common and most IVF laboratories
worldwide have rate freezers. Freezing an embryo allows physicians to replace
one embryo at a time and store others or spares for later use; it may also help
in allowing a patient to 'recover hormonal equilibrium' by delaying implantation
to allow the IVF drugs to clear her body. Controlled rate frozen embryos appear
to develop into equally healthy children compared with ‘fresh' IVF ones. Recent
studies from Denmark, Australia, the USA and Finland have indicated they may be
even healthier. The freezing of embryos is becoming particularly important
because of the interest in SET - selective embryo transfer - to help avoid
multiple births and so a successful embryo freezing programme is essential for
an IVF clinic.
The controlled rate freezing technique, originally suggested over thirty years
ago by British Scientist Professor David Pegg, enabled Planer plc to pioneer
this equipment. Many thousands of units are in constant use all over the world
in IVF labs, hospitals and research institutions. Controlled rate freezing is
needed before storing many cells in liquid nitrogen - in areas such as cord
blood banking, bone marrow transplants, botanical matter, semen, oocytes,
botanical seeds, skin, ovarian tissue, heart valves and blood vessels.
Professor Alan Trounson, currently president of the California Institute of
Regenerative Medicine, became a world authority on assisted reproduction and
went on to pioneer work in the stem cell field. Alan Trounson is now based in
San Francisco and has had a highly distinguished career in assisted
reproduction, stem cell and gynaecological research in academic institutions
after Monash University in Melbourne.
Recently Louise Brown, the first IVF baby, had her own child naturally - Zoe has
no such plans yet and having finished her degree is working in Melbourne.
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Background Information:
Alan Trounson is President of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
in San Francisco, California. Prior to joining CIRM in January 2008, Trounson
was Professor of Stem Cell Sciences and Director of the Monash Immunology and
Stem Cell Laboratories at Monash University, where he retains the title of
Emeritus Professor. Dr. Trounson founded the National Biotechnology Centre of
Excellence - ‘Australian Stem Cell Centre'. He held various positions at Monash
University beginning in 1977 and was appointed Director of the Centre for Early
Human Development in 1985. He was awarded a Personal Chair in Obstetrics and
Gynaecology/Paediatrics in 1991, and in 2003 was awarded a Personal Chair as
Professor of Stem Cell Sciences. A Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians
and Gynaecologists and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand
College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Trounson was awarded an honorary
doctorate by the faculty of medicine at the University of Brussels. He has been
a pioneer of human in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and associated reproductive
technologies; the diagnosis of inherited genetic disease in pre-implantation
embryos; the discovery and production of human embryonic stem cells and of their
ability to be directed into neurones, prostate tissue and respiratory tissue.
http://www.cirm.ca.gov
Planer plc specialises in the measurement and control of physical parameters
related to cell preservation and safety in hospitals, laboratories and
universities. Based near London's Heathrow airport the company has sold over ten
thousand state of the art electronic, electromechanical and software products
world-wide, via its network of fifty sales and service distributors, since 1973.
Having pioneered the development and use of products for controlled rate
freezing, the company received the Queen's Award for Technology and awards from
the British DTI for Innovation and Good Practice in Micro-electronics. Customers
who depend on the viability of their stored samples use Planer products, which
include programmable freezers, incubators, monitoring equipment and software for
the viable storage and preservation of medical and biological specimens - cells,
cord blood, bone marrow, embryos, botanical matter, semen, oocytes, botanical
seeds, skin, ovarian tissue, heart valves, blood vessels and more.
http://www.planer.co.uk
Mr. Jamie Bennet, Sales Director
jbennet@planer.co.uk
Mr. Paul Lakra, Managing Director
plakra@planer.co.uk
Mr. Geoffrey Planer, Chair
gplaner@planer.co.uk
44 1 (0) 9327 55000
Studies on Health of cryopreserved embryos using controlled rate freezers
(i)Dr Pinborg et al(Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Denmark)
looked at all 1,278 children born from frozen embryos in Denmark between 1995
and 2006 showing that it appeared better to use frozen rather than fresh embryos
in IVF treatment (reported ESHRE 2008).
(ii) H. W. G. Baker et al: of Melbourne Hospital, Australia, Fertility and
Sterility September 2008 (Vol. 90, Page S29) (iii) S. Kansal Kalra et al
University of Pennsylvania, Abstract at S.205
(iv) S. Pelkonen et al Oulu& Helsinki University Hospitals, Finland
In conclusion singletons born after IVF, ICSI or FET treatments seem to be more
often premature and have more often low birth weight than singletons after
spontaneous pregnancy. FET-singletons have better outcome compared with
singletons born after fresh embryo transfer when examining birth weight or
gestational age at birth.
Abstract at S.65 (v)
http://www.ivf.net/ivf/slow_frozen_embryos_seem_to_produce_healthier_babies_in_ivf_correction-o3845.html
