The Biology Behind the Fertility Clinic Meltdown

*This blog was first published at DNA Science Blog at Public Library of Science* The spindle apparatus is among the most elegant structures in a cell, quickly self-assembling from microtubules and grabbing and aligning chromosomes so that equal sets separate into the two daughter cells that result from a division. But can spindles in cells held at the brink of division in the suspended animation of the deep freeze at a fertility clinic survive being ripped from their slumber off-protocol, as happened the weekend of March 4 at the Pacific Fertility Clinic in San Francisco and University Hospitals Fertility Center in Cleveland? The tragic events sent me back to developmental biology courses in grad school, and I read a bunch of technical papers and polled a few nerd friends. The experiments from the 1950s onward were controlled, and so my thoughts on the damage done in early March are hypothetical. I can’t help but wonder what, exactly, happened to those eggs and embryos?It was a stunning coincidence impacting the eggs or embryos of 500 couples on the west coast and 700 using the Ohio clinic. Liquid nitrogen ran low in a cryogenic device in San Francisco, and temperature fluctuations reportedly plagued the Cleveland facility. The Media and the Damage Done A news conference from one legal firm filing a class action lawsuit against the clinics was long on emotion and short on details. Here’s a lawsuit from a different ...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Tags: Health Care Fertility syndicated Source Type: blogs