Grant: Operating Grant

More and more Canadian women are turning to in vitro fertilization (IVF) to help them have children, but many are frustrated by its poor success rate - only about 30%. Although women undergoing IVF cycles usually receive multiple injections of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), some researchers are now questioning whether lower doses might be better. Unfortunately, because we do not know what role FSH plays in the normal development of a healthy egg, we cannot answer the question. We will study the role of FSH using mice that are unable to produce this hormone. Our preliminary results indicate the eggs of these mice seem to develop normally, but that following fertilization they cannot develop as embryos. We will study these eggs more closely to find out what goes wrong during their development and will attempt to find conditions that will rescue them so that they can produce healthy embryos. We hope that the results will allow women to enjoy a higher rate of successful IVF without the need for stressful and costly injections of FSH and repeated trips to the hospital for egg collection.