Hydrops and fetal death after IVF; a video

Keywords: hydrops, abortion, IVF, bovine

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Notes: 

It is sometimes difficult or impossible to obtain embryos from super ovulated cows. In these animals, in vitro fertilization (IVF) can bypass this problem. IVF also holds promise for research and the production of embryos when oocytes are not available. For example, the production of embryos from stem cells may even be possible. By contrast, the advantages of cloning are perhaps obvious. Sometimes cloning is done through the use of blastomeres, but more often nowadays through the use of nuclear transfer from somatic cells.

Unfortunately serious complications can arise when either IVF or cloning is used. These problems include early embryonic death, abortion, excess of fetal size, hydrops of the fetal membranes, skeletal fractures, a high incidence of neonatal death and increased death rate in the early years of life. These problems are more accentuated in cloning than IVF, but even in IVF, problems such as hydrops occur far more frequently than in natural pregnancies.

In this case, IVF was done only after repeated attempts to collect embryos had failed using conventional methods.

Hydrops in a cow

Keywords:  hydrops, bovine, cow, IVF, cloning, allantois, amnion

A cow with both hydrops amnion and allantois, showing her enlarged abdomen. It is sometimes stated that hydrops amnion develops slowly and in the presence of an abnormal calf. In the case of hydrops allantois, some maintain that the hydroptic condition develops more rapidly and the calf is usually normal. However there is often overlap between the two conditions with hydrops developing in both fetal placental compartments. Hydrops has become more common in cattle with the advent of in vitro fertilization and cloning.

In Japanese Black cattle it has been shown that hydrops allantois can be associated with a recessive gene coding for hydronephrosis and polyuria; this results is hydrops allantois.

Selected reference:

Sasaki S. et al. 2016. A missense mutation in solute carrier family 12, member 1 (SLC12A1) causes hydrallantois in Japanese Black cattle BMC Genomics 17:724 739