Through our close association with the University of Oxford we are very closely involved in important research and development in the field of reproductive medicine. The results of these studies are of great significance in helping us to understand the causes of infertility and improve the success of the treatments offered.
To enable these studies to take place it is vital that we recruit volunteers to take part. If you are interested in helping us to help others we can provide you with full details of our research projects and you will have the opportunity to discuss them with the nurse at your Consent Consultation.
Please note that all research studies have inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Our current research projects include:
Development of a model to study implantation in the human (HFEA Research Licence Project RO111)
Although it is now nearly 30 years since the birth of the first IVF baby, success rates still remain disappointingly low. With techniques such as ICSI and surgical sperm retrieval it is now possible for most couples to achieve fertilisation. However, apparently good quality embryos are put back into the mother but they fail to implant and form a pregnancy. Understanding the mechanisms of implantation and why it sometimes fails is therefore vital to increasing the success rates of IVF.
The purpose of this project is to investigate how the human embryo attaches, invades and interacts with the different cell populations of the endometrium (the lining of the womb) during implantation and the molecules which are involved in these processes.
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis for mitochondrial DNA disease
Abnormalities in mitochondrial DNA may be the cause of some severe inherited diseases in children.
Currently, if a woman who is known to be affected becomes pregnant, her fetus can be tested for the disease while it is in the womb (prenatal genetic diagnosis) and the pregnancy terminated if necessary.
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis avoids this by screening embryos created by IVF (by removing one or two cells from each embryo for genetic analysis) and then only transferring those known to be unaffected back to the mother. In this way she can start a pregnancy in the knowledge that she has a normal child.
The purpose of this project is only to develop the techniques for safe removal of cells from the embryo and for genetic analysis in our laboratory.
We will attempt to detect mitochondrial DNA in the cells removed from the embryo and compare it with mitochondrial DNA from a spare drop of your routine blood sample.
No diagnostic tests will be carried out on any embryos donated for research.
Stem cell and trophoblast culture research
The very early embryo is made up of cells, which will become the placenta and membranes of the pregnancy (trophoblast cells) and other cells, which have the potential to make any part of the human body (stem cells).
It is now recognised that if we can understand how stem cells function and what influences control their transformation into different types of tissue then it makes possible the eventful role of stem cells in the regeneration of diseased human tissues.
It is also recognised that we should be able to learn more about the function of trophoblast cells in conditions of pregnancy such as pre-eclampsia and impaired fetal growth if long-term trophoblast cell cultures could be studied.
The proposed research will involve stem cells and trophoblast cells being isolated from the early embryo before the stage where any tissues have formed. This is about seven days after fertilisation when the embryo is a ball of up to 100 cells.
If embryonic stem cells or trophoblast stem cells can be isolated successfully then these will be studied in culture in order to better understand how their growth and development are controlled. It is hoped that these cultured cells may result in stem cell lines or trophoblast stem cell lines that will continue to grow in culture indefinitely.
It is a legal requirement that any stem cell lines will be deposited with the Medical Research Council (MRC) UK Stem Cell Bank. The UK Stem Cell Bank will control the availability of stem cell lines for medical research.
Metformin treatment before IVF
Metformin treatment before IVF in women with ultrasound evidence of polycystic ovaries; a prospective, randomised, double blind, placebo study (REC reference number 05/Q1605/87).
This is a clinical study we are performing in Oxford, in which we shall see if treatment with a course of tablets called metformin before IVF improves the chance of successful treatment and live birth.
Every patient has a baseline ultrasound scan before starting IVF treatment. This is to partly assess what the ovaries look like which may change your treatment. Around 20% of the general female population have polycystic ovaries (PCO) as do around a third of women attending fertility clinics. PCO is diagnosed if there are 12 or more follicles (fluid-filled sacs) on one or both of the ovaries. Only patients who are eligible will be invited to take part.