Reproductive technologies Flashcards
Problems with fertilization
-Poor egg/sperm quality
- Fallopian tube blockage or bad defend blockage
Assisted Reprodive technologies (ART’s)
-Increase chances of successful fertilization
-Type of ART’s:
* Intracytoplasmic sperm injection(ICSI)
*Laser-inserted hatching(LAH)
*Artificial insemination
Intercytoplasmic sperm injection(ICSI)
injection of a single sperm into an eggs cytoplasm
Laser-assisted hatching (LAH)
making an opening in the eggs outer layer so the embryo can hatch from the egg and impact into the uterus
Artificial insemination
-Placing concentrated sperm in the uterus of a female
-Used in non-human species to enhance genetic diversity
*Breeders can select from several samples of frozen sperm from thousands of make donors
*Cheaper to ship frozen semen then to shop an animal for breading
*Can help save endangered species
Concerns about artificial insemination
-creating “banks” of frozen semen can be expensive
-efforts and money can be put on helping protect wild populations and their habitats
Gene therapy
a process in which scientists vectors to correct defective genes
Vector
a agent such as a virus which is used to insert a piece of DNA into a cell
Steps of gene therapy
- Viral DNA is removed so it can not harm us
- Copies of DNA that include the normal gene are placed into each virus
- Viruses used to infect cells so they can insert normal human DNA into the cells
Set backs of gene therapy
-Jesse Gelsinger: body had a immune response to the virus
-Genes can activate other genes such as cancer causing genes
Successes of gene therapy
-Inherited blindness
*Helped patients restore their vision
-Duchenne muscular dystrophy
*leads to muscle degeneration
*in mice we have been able to repair the gene that causes this disorder
-Deafness
*In pigs scientists delivered gene to regrow hairs in our cochlea
-Hairs translate sound into nerve signals for our brain
