The Biological Basis of Early Human Reproductive Failure: Applications to Medically-Assisted Conception by Jonathan Van Blerkom (Editor) Purchase at:  Amazon.com  Format: Hardcover, 1st ed., 451pp.  ISBN: 0195060369 Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated  Pub. Date: June 1994

Description from Amazon.com

Book Description 

This book explains how biological factors can influence the development of human gametes and early embryos, and how clinicians and researchers can use this information to select methods of medically assisted conception best suited to infertile patients. Because laboratory methods and clinical protocols, such as the quality of water and purity of reagents used in culture medium, are essential to the success of these procedures, there is a tendency to give the less weight to biological factors in explaining the success or failure in achieving pregnancy. In redressing the balance, this volume shows how molecular, cellular, genetic, endocrinological, and immunological factors contribute to the development potential of human gametes and early embryos. The chapters are written by authors who are clinicians in medically assisted conception and researchers in the etiology of early reproductive failure. Many of the contributors offer advice on how programs could benefit from adopting analytical methods that would determine fertility/developmental problems at the gamete level. The ability to recognize how these intrinsic factors can affect the early stages of human development provides a more insightful basis for interpreting pregnancy outcome, and a more complete understanding of the factors that can and cannot be controlled. Reproductive biologists and clinicians involved in medically assisted conception should find the book highly useful.

Description from BarnesandNoble.com

From the Publisher 

Van Blerkom, Jonathan, PhD(Univ of Colorado)

The contributors represent the specialties of obstetrics/gynecology, reproductive medicine, embryology, and pathology. Most come from academic centers in the U.S., the U.K., France, Canada, and Australia. Institutions prominently represented include Univ of Melbourne, Royal North Shore Hospital in New South Wales, and Univ of Colorado.

From Doody Review Services 

Reviewer: James Aiman, MD (Medical College of Wisconsin) 

Description: This multiauthored text describes the basic science aspects of human reproduction and offers a cogent critique of the limitations of current assisted reproductive technologies. 

Purpose: The purpose is to provide both clinician and researcher with a comprehensive understanding of how molecular, cellular, genetic, endocrinological, and immunological factors can influence the developmental potential of human gametes and early embryos. There are worthy objectives that are largely met. There are other texts published recently that also fulfill this objective. 

Audience: Although the editor states that this book is intended for clinicians and researchers, clinicians will not find this book particularly useful because valuable information is difficult to discover. The authors and editors are predominantly PhDs working in reproductive units. 

Features: There is a distressing paucity of illustrations. Selective use of more tables, figures, graphs, etc., would have enabled the authors to shorten significantly the textual material. The extensive and current list of references is the real strength of this book. 

Assessment: Valuable information is lost in a sea of words. The reader must swim through lengthy descriptions of anecdotal observations, reviews and critiques of individual reports, and analyses and summaries. The reader has to work hard mentally to extract and synthesize the information in this book.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: Intrinsic Factors Affecting the Outcome of Laboratory-Assisted Conception in the Human   3

2 The Prognostic Value of Clinical Factors in In Vitro Fertilization and Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer   28

3 Endocrinological Aspects of Early Pregnancy Associated with Reproductive Success and Failure   66

4 The Immunological Basis of Human Gamete Dysfunction and Early Developmental Failure   142

5 Detection of Human Sperm Pathology by Fine-Structural Analysis   210

6 The Biochemistry and Physiology of Human Spermatozoa: Consequences for Fertility and Sterility   252

7 Developmental Failure in Human Reproduction Associated with Chromosomal Abnormalities and Cytoplasmic Pathologies in Meiotically Mature Oocytes   283

8 Developmental Failure During the Preimplementation Period of Human Embryogenesis   327

9 Genetic Defects in the Human Preimplantation Embryo and the Diagnosis of Inherited Disease    345

10 Embryo-Derived and Maternal Factors Associated with Developmental Potential and Viability of Preimplantation Mammalian Embryos   375

11 Factors Influencing Human Embryonic Development   407

Index   439