Beata Blazkova: What Actually Makes an Embryo Keep Going?
Beata Blazkova, ESHRE-Certified Senior Clinical Embryologist at Prague Fertility Centre, shared a post on LinkedIn:
” ‘What actually makes an embryo keep going?’
A patient asked me this during a consultation few days ago.
I’ve been asked countless questions throughout my career in embryology. Many of them come up again and again.
And then there are those that make you stop and really think. This was one of them.
‘Probably life,’ I said.
We laughed.
‘But seriously. Is it chemistry? Genetics?’
The more I thought about it, the more interesting the question became. Because an embryo doesn’t have a single engine.
Its first divisions depend on a highly coordinated system of DNA replication, cell-cycle regulation, metabolism, cytoskeletal organisation and countless molecular interactions.
And at the very beginning, much of this machinery is actually provided by the oocyte, before control gradually shifts towards the embryonic genome.
So what actually keeps an embryo going?
Not one gene, one molecule, nor even genetics alone.
It’s a dynamic system in which all these processes continuously interact.
And somehow, I still like my first answer.
‘Probably life.’ ”
Proceed to the video attached to the post.
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