Medical and social perspectives of PGD for single gene disorders and human leukocyte antigen typing

Patriarchal pronatalism: Islam, secularism and the conjugal confines of Turkey's IVF boom

This article constructs an explanatory history of the introduction, growth and social regulation of IVF in Turkey, labelling it a form of 'patriarchal pronatalism'. Based on sociological research between 2006 and 2010, including analysis of regulatory and media materials as well as an in-depth clinical ethnography and interviews with IVF patients and practitioners, the paper contextualizes Turkey's 'IVF boom' within the wider and governmental contexts of reproductive politics. Examining both the legal framework and the surrounding rhetoric, it highlights how the nationally pertinent tensions between Islam and secularism unfold in this particular field, and traces how the rise of neo-conservatism and the expansion of the role of religious organizations and discourses has led to the promotion and development of assisted reproduction, but only within strictly enforced conjugal confines. This work contributes not only to the significant sociological and anthropological scholarship on the globalization, localization and repro-national character of assisted reproductive technologies around the world, but also to the growing scholarship examining the contours of reproductive citizenship, gender relations and family formation in contemporary Turkey.

Seven years of experience of preimplantation HLA typing: a clinical overview of 327 cycles

Preimplantation human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing allows the birth of healthy children who are potential donors of stem cells for their affected siblings. This technique can be used for acquired diseases such as leukaemia or can be used for single-gene disorders such as thalassaemia. This retrospective study presents clinical data obtained from 171 couples who had undergone 327 preimplantation HLA typing cycles: 262 cycles for HLA typing in combination with mutation analysis and 65 cycles for the sole purpose of HLA typing. Of the diagnosed embryos 17.6% were found to be HLA matched. Embryo transfer was performed in 212 cycles, 34.9% clinical pregnancy rate per transfer was achieved and 59 healthy and HLA-compatible children were born. Twenty-one sick children have been cured through haemopoietic stem cell transplantation. The effect of maternal age and ovarian reserve on reproductive outcome was assessed retrospectively. The data demonstrated that, once a mutation-free and HLA-compatible embryo was found, clinical pregnancy rate did not differ statistically significantly despite the presence of some cycle-related limitations such as advanced maternal age and/or diminished ovarian reserve. Preimplantation HLA typing is an effective therapeutic tool for curing an affected sibling even for poor-prognosis patients. Preimplantation human leukocyte antigent (HLA) typing allows the birth of healthy children who are potential donors of stem cells for their affected siblings. This technique can be used for acquired diseases such as leukaemia or can be used for single-gene disorders such as thalassaemia. This study presents clinical data obtained from 171 couples who underwent 327 preimplantation HLA-typing cycles. Of these, 262 cycles were performed for HLA typing in combination with mutation analysis and 65 cycles were performed for the sole purpose of HLA typing. A total of 17.6% of the diagnosed embryos were found to be HLA matched. Embryo transfer was performed in 212 cycles. The clinical pregnancy rate per transfer was 34.9% and 59 healthy and HLA compatible children were born. Twenty-one sick children have been cured through haemopoietic stem cell transplantation. The effect of maternal age and ovarian reserve on reproductive outcome was assessed retrospectively. The data demonstrated that, once a mutation-free and HLA-compatible embryo was found, clinical pregnancy rates did not differ statistically significantly by the presence of some cycle-related limitations such as advanced maternal age and/or diminished ovarian reserve. Preimplantation HLA typing is an effective therapeutic tool for curing an affected sibling even for poor-prognosis patients.

Establishment and characterization of human embryonic stem cell lines, Turkey perspectives

Human embryonic stem cells (hESC), which are derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocyst stage embryos, are of great importance because of their unpredictable two unique features: their differentiation ability into all types of cells derived from three germ layers and their potentially unlimited capacity of self renewing with stable karyotype. These distinguished properties make hESC very promising cell source for regenerative medicine, tissue replacement therapies, and drug screening studies as well as genomics. However, due to the several technical problems, such as risk of teratoma formation, immune response, and unknown genetic pathways for lineage specific differentiation, and ethical drawbacks of their using in clinical treatments, hESC researches are still waiting to advance beyond to animal trials and drug studies. During the last decade, more than 300 new hESC lines have been derived and published by researchers worldwide. However, despite their similar well-known unique properties, recent studies reported that hESC lines have very individual properties and are differed from each other with regards to their differentiation ability and gene expression profiles. Therefore, all hESC lines should be characterized in detail and then registered in a stem cell bank for generating global database. In this report, the characteristic of hESC lines, which were established in Istanbul Memorial Hospital between 2003 and 2005, and derivation methods were described in detail to inform researchers and to facilitate new prospective cooperative studies.

PGD-derived human embryonic stem cell lines as a powerful tool for the study of human genetic disorders

Human embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocyst embryos. They are established from spare embryos that have been obtained by in vitro fertilization (IVF) and donated for research purposes. The ICM-derived cell lines have two unique properties, they can be propagated indefinitely in culture and have the potential to develop into practically any cell type in vitro and in vivo. Human embryonic stem (hES) cells carrying specific mutations can be used as a valuable tool for studying genetic disorders in human. One favorable approach to obtain such mutant ES cell lines is their derivation from affected preimplantation genetic diagnosed (PGD) embryos. This review focuses on the importance of deriving human ES cell lines from genetically abnormal embryos, especially in cases where no good cellular and/or animal models exist.