Does Artificial Insemination Affect The Baby's Intrauterine Development?
Author: Ivan Red Jr.
Time for reading: ~1
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
Artificial insemination negatively affects the metabolism of the fetus and increases the risk of obesity and hypertension.
U.S. researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and their colleagues at the University of Cincinnati have conducted a study showing that artificial insemination negatively affects metabolism and increases the risk of obesity and hypertension.
Experts have found that IVF and ICSI assisted reproduction techniques adversely affect the genes responsible for the metabolism and transport of nutrients across the placenta.
Evidence for this claim is based on the results of experiments with laboratory mice, reports Science Daily.
The results explain why "babies in a test tube" are more often affected by metabolic disorders. Metabolic problems cause overweight, obesity, high blood pressure and high blood glucose.
Scientists point out that with the advancement of medicine, the number of assisted conceptions is increasing. Over 2% of all pregnancies in the United States and Europe are the result of artificial insemination techniques such as IVF and ICSI.
Specialists monitored the activity of genes that play a major role in fetal nutrition in the placenta.
To study in more detail how the offspring develops during artificial insemination, the experts described the in utero development and feeding in three experimental groups of mice. The laboratory animals of the first group conceived naturally, those of the second - by in vitro fertilization (IVF), and in the third - by ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection).
In all three groups of animals, the activity of genes encoding insulin-like growth factor type 2 and glucose transporters type 1 and 3 was monitored.
The results showed that both types of assisted fertilization increase glucose transporters type 1 and 3. This changes the processes of transporting nutrients to the fetus and increases the risk of metabolic disorders due to "unhealthy eating" in the womb.
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