Perceptions of trophectoderm as a sentinel for embryo selection

Excerpt

The archives of mammalian embryology are punctuated by landmark studies covering a rich tradition of technological bravado that spans 75 years. The most primordial perceptions of preimplantation embryo morphology were recorded at the Carnegie Institute for Embryology in Baltimore by the likes of Corner, Streeter, Hauser, Hartmann and others in the 1930s and 1940s in prosimian forbears and set the stage for the meticulous dissections and consequent descriptions of we now refer to as the “egg hunts” from the Hertig and Rock era. Shedding light on the earliest stages of human development was hardly a matter of academic pursuit! In fact for the history buffs among our readership, even a cursory examination of Hertig’s classic “The Human Trophoblast” published in 1966 will prompt a smile or two from his description of the use of a car battery and headlight to obtain enough transillumination in the dissecting microscope to permit identification of the 20ish early-stage embryos he extricated while they were in transit through the Fallopian tubes. …