ABSTRACT
Embryo biopsy (EB) was developed out of the necessity for single-gene disorder testing and for the potential of sexing embryos. In 1967, Edwards and Gardner published their report on rabbit EB and sexing (1). Two decades passed before EB research began to lend itself to clinical application and interest for human embryos. In 1989, Wilton et al. reported successful single-cell biopsy and cryopreservation in the mouse (2). That same year, Handyside et al. reported the biopsy of human preimplantation embryos and sexing by DNA amplification for couples at risk of transmitting recessive X-linked diseases, as well as DNA analysis of human oocytes for cystic fibrosis diagnosis (3, 4). The feasibility of single-cell polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the diagnosis of single-gene disorders was demonstrated by Coutelle et al. in 1989, where unfertilized oocytes were used as an example for single-cell PCR (3). The first pregnancies were reported in 1990 by Handyside et al., while Grifo et al. reported the first pregnancy after human EB and sexing in the U.S.A. in 1992 (5, 6).
