Mumbai finds a new way to make babies in the lab

For infertile couples whose hope of parenthood floats uncertainly on embryos in a petridish, a new technique from local specialists has just upped the chances of successful pregnancy. The path-breaking process gives a gentle twist to in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) by using wispy, cloud-like clumps of cumulus cells.

These cells surround the egg at ovulation, but are later discarded as waste, said Dr Firuza Parikh, director, department of assisted reproduction and genetics at Jaslok Hospital. In IVF, the woman’s eggs are fertilised under lab conditions, then transferred into the uterus. But the Jaslok team transferred the embryos with an excess baggage — droplets of cumulus cells known to be rich in factors that facilitate the growth of embryos. The idea, tried on almost 200 patients — many of whom had failed IVF attempts earlier — took off after a casual conversation between Dr Parikh and her husband two years ago. ‘‘We were discussing general needs in life and I suddenly wondered if I was wasting something in my lab,’’ said Parikh, who led the development of the cumulus aided transfer (CAT) technique with Dr Nandkishore Naik and Dr Suparna Nadkarni.

Sub-brokers Dhrumal and Tanvi Parikh gave this technique a go. A week back, they became proud parents of a baby girl. ‘‘We had attempted two IVF cycles earlier, elsewhere, but it didn’t work’’ said Tanvi.

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The CAT procedure takes barely 78-80 hours before the transfer. The results, reported in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology of India (November-December 2004) point to a ‘‘significant increase in the implantation rate and a trend towards higher pregnancy rates’’.

‘‘We need to try this further on 400-500 patients,’’ said Dr Parikh. ‘‘I don’t want to patent the technique, but teach it to as many doctors as possible,’’ she said.