Extended In Vitro Culture of Human Embryos

Recent innovations in extended in vitro culture (IVC) systems have revolutionized our understanding of human peri-implantation development. Building on foundational animal studies, refined protocols now support human embryo culture beyond the blastocyst stage, providing unprecedented access to previously elusive developmental events. These systems have yielded critical insights into early morphogenetic processes, lineage specification, and tissue organization, significantly advancing developmental biology. Here, we provide our current protocol for the extended culture of human embryos, followed by immunofluorescence for lineage markers of interest. Unveiling human peri-implantation development also promises to improve reproductive medicine, potentially addressing challenges related to implantation failure, chromosomal instability in embryos, as well as congenital disorders. Insights gained from this research may pave way for novel therapeutic approaches and advancements in medically assisted reproduction.