Epigenetic effects of IVF in placental tissue

In animal models it has been demonstrated that assisted reproductive technologies (ART), such as ovarian stimulation and in vitro culture of embryos, can lead to abnormal epigenetic regulation of certain genes that are important during early development resulting in grossly abnormal foetal growth. Also in the human, own observations as well as those in published reports seem to indicate epigenetic deregulation after IVF and/or ICSI, albeit that the effects are less dramatic as in animal models. As the placenta has been shown as one of the tissues in which epigenetic deregulation leads to clearly aberrant methylation patterns and expression of imprinted genes, we hypothesize that differences in these epigenetic parameters will exist between placental tissues from spontaneous pregnancies and those resulting from IVF pregnancies.

There are differences in epigenetic parameters between placental tissues from spontaneous pregnancies and from IVF pregnancies.

Placental tissue is collected after birth

None. In both groups, placental tissue will be collected after birth and examined for several epigenetic markers