Early human pregnancy in vitro utilizing an artificially perfused uterus

The penetration of luminal epithelium in the uterine cavity represents the crucial event that triggers the failure of embryo implant, thus limiting the possibility of fertility control. The purpose of our study was to implant a human blastocyst, cultured in vitro, into a human uterus extracorporeally perfused with an oxygenated medium. For this purpose, human blastocysts, collected from patients who underwent IVF program because of irreparable tubal infertility, were injected under the luminal epithelium of human perfused uteri. Light and electron microscopy showed that human blastocyst can successfully undergo the stage of implantation and trophoblastic invasion in 52 hours of extracorporeal perfusion.