Welcome to The Visible Embryo, a comprehensive educational resource on human development from conception to birth.

The Visible Embryo provides visual references for changes in fetal development throughout pregnancy and can be navigated via fetal development or maternal changes.

The National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development awarded Phase I and Phase II Small Business Innovative Research Grants to develop The Visible Embryo in 1993 as a first generation internet teaching tool consolidating human embryology teaching for first year medical students.

Today, The Visible Embryo is linked to over 600 educational institutions and is viewed by more than 1 million visitors each month. The field of early embryology has grown to include the identification of the stem cell as not only critical to organogenesis in the embryo, but equally critical to organ function and repair in the adult human.

The identification and understanding of genetic malfunction, inflammatory responses, and the progression in chronic disease, begins with a grounding in primary cellular and systemic functions manifested in the study of the early embryo.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has created a new Web site to help researchers, doctors and patients obtain reliable information on high-quality clinical trials. Now you can go to one website and search all registers to identify clinical trial research underway around the world!

New Relief for Gynecological Disorders

Researchers discover injectable protein to reverse symptoms of dangerous conditions in a woman's body—abnormal growth of blood vessels can have painful consequences and pathologies.

The creation of new blood vessels in the body, called "angiogenesis," is usually discussed in connection with healing wounds and tumors. But it's also an ongoing process in the female reproductive tract, where the growth and breaking of blood vessels is a normal part of the menstrual cycle. But abnormal growth of blood vessels can have painful consequences and resultant pathologies.

Now, Prof. Ruth Shalgi and research associate Dr. Dana Chuderland of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine have found a potential treatment for this abnormal growth in a potent physiological anti-angiogentic factor, PEDF. Administered by simple injection, this protein reverses the symptoms of related diseases without compromising fertility, according to pre-clinical studies.

These new findings, which have been reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Human Reproduction, and Molecular Human Reproduction, could provide relief for millions of women worldwide. This work was done in collaboration with Prof. Rafael Ron-El and Dr. Ido Ben-Ami from Assaf Harofeh Hospital.

Dangers of angiogenesis

There are two primary pathologies associated with
angiogenesis in the female reproductive system.

One is endometriosis, characterized by the passage of
uterine cells to other locations in the body during
menstruation, which causes severe pain
and reduced fertility.

The other is ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS),
a possible side effect of IVF treatments. This is a
potentially life-threatening disease with symptoms
including abdominal pain and swelling.

Approximately 170 million women suffer from endometriosis worldwide, and about 10 percent of women receiving IVF treatment develop OHSS. Because no treatment currently exists for either of these conditions, affected women have no choice but to suffer through the symptoms.

In the past few decades, scientists have conducted extensive research on both pro-angiogenic factors such as VEGF and anti-angiogenic factors including PEDF. The effect of PEDF in decreasing abnormal angiogenesis has been extensively investigated in the eye and in tumors. Prof. Shalgi and Dr. Chuderland hypothesized that the same protein could play a role in diseases of the female reproductive system related to blood vessels growth.

In both OHSS and endometriosis, rampant VEGF levels allow
for the abnormal vascularization that characterises both
diseases. To counteract this effect and restore a healthy
angiogenic balance in the reproductive system, the
researchers turned to PEDF as a replacement therapy agent.

In the lab, Prof. Shalgi and Dr. Chuderland developed mouse
models of both endometriosis and OHSS. After preparing
the PEDF protein, they injected the mice with it.

The researchers noted a "perfect reversal" of all symptoms,
including reduced abdominal swelling in OHSS-induced mice
and eradicated lesions in endometriosis.

When evaluating whether this protein might affect fertility,
they confirmed that PEDF had no negative impact on
ovulation or pregnancy rate. In fact, it increased the number
of ovulated eggs in the endometriosis model,
suggesting improved fertility.

Easing the pain

The next step is to commercialize the protein for therapeutic use, say the researchers, who were the first to prove that this anti-angiogenic protein is active in the reproductive system. This discovery has been patent protected and is currently undergoing commercialization by Ramot, the technology transfer company of TAU (www.ramot.org).

There are currently no treatment options for women suffering from these diseases, explains Dr. Chunderland, who believes that endometriosis, in particular, is under-diagnosed and usually dismissed as severe menstrual pain. This new treatment could bring long-awaited relief from painful and seemingly uncontrollable symptoms, including severe abdominal pain and infertility issues.

Endometriosis has a negative impact on eggs' quality;
30 percent of women with this disease require fertility
treatments in order to conceive, say the researchers.

Women who develop OHSS have a lower chance
of conception and a higher chance of miscarriage
during their IVF treatment cycles. If these diseases
could be eradicated, it would ease the sometimes
difficult road towards conception, they suggest.

For more fertility and pregnancy health news from Tel Aviv University, click here

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Original article: http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=18299