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Definition: in vitro fertilization from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

(1969) : fertilization of an egg in a laboratory dish or test tube; specif : fertilization by mixing sperm with eggs surgically removed from an ovary followed by uterine implantation of one or more of the resulting fertilized eggs — abbr. IVF

in vitro fertilization

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(vē'trō, vĭ'trō) (IVF), technique for conception of a human embryo outside the mother's body. Several ova , or eggs, are removed from the mother's body and placed in special laboratory culture dishes (Petri dishes); sperm from the father are then added, or in many cases a sperm is injected directly into an ovum, a process known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection. If fertilization is successful, a fertilized ovum (or several fertilized ova), after undergoing several cell divisions, is either transferred to the mother's or a surrogate mother's body for normal development in the uterus, or frozen for later implantation. Eggs also can be frozen and fertilized later. In vitro maturation is when the ova are extracted and then matured in a laboratory (instead of in the mother's body) before they are fertilized. First developed by Patrick C. Steptoe and Robert G. Edwards of Great Britain (where the first “test-tube baby” was born under their care in 1978), IVF was devised for use in cases of…
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Full text Article In vitro fertilization (IVF)

From Penguin Dictionary of Biology
Technique developed primarily as a treatment for human infertility. Typically, a woman is superovulated by exogenous gonadotrophins; oocytes collected are matured in a culture medium; fresh or frozen sperm are washed in a suitable medium to induce CAPACITATION and then placed in culture with…
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Full text Article In Vitro Fertilization

From Brenner's Encyclopedia of Genetics
In Vitro Fertilization
Abstract The history of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in humans, and in particular its origins as a way of understanding the genetic basis of human disease, is described. Then the range of current genetically related applications of the technique is described, including studies on the genetics of…
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Full text Article In Vitro Fertilization

From The Big Idea: How Breakthroughs of the Past Shape the Future Full text Article Health & Medicine
Date: 1978 It took British fertility researcher Robert Edwards decades to unlock the mysteries of conception, first working with animals, then struggling for years to create just the right hormonal conditions and achieve precisely the correct timing to fertilize and grow human eggs in a petri dish. …
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It took British fertility researcher Robert Edwards decades to unravel the mysteries of conception. First, he worked with animals; then he struggled for years to create just the right hormonal conditions to fertilize and grow human eggs in a petri dish. At last a successful implantation resulted in…
| 281 words
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Full text Article in vitro fertilization

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(vē'trō, vĭ'trō) (IVF), technique for conception of a human embryo outside the mother's body. Several ova , or eggs, are removed from the mother's body and placed in special laboratory culture dishes (Petri dishes); sperm from the father are then added, or in many cases a sperm is injected directly…
| 463 words
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Full text Article In Vitro Fertilization

From Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine
Looking through a microscope, a laboratory...
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a procedure in which eggs (ova) from a woman's ovary are removed, they are fertilized with sperm in a laboratory procedure, and then the fertilized egg (embryo) is returned to the woman's uterus. IVF is one of several assisted reproductive techniques (ART) used to…
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Full text Article in vitro fertilization (IVF)

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Procedure, used to overcome infertility , in which eggs are removed from a woman, fertilized with sperm outside the body, and inserted into the uterus of the same or another woman. The first child thus conceived was born in 1978. IVF includes extraction of eggs, collection of sperm, fertilization in…
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Full text Article in vitro fertilization

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Medical procedure to treat infertility in humans. Eggs are removed from a patient's ovaries then fertilized with sperm in a laboratory to create embryos (properly called pre-embryos in their two- to eight-celled stage), which are stored by cooling to the temperature of liquid air (cryopreservation). …
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Full text Article In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

From The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies
In vitro (‘in glass’) fertilisation (IVF) is a medical, assisted reproductive technology which fertilises eggs with sperm in a petri dish in a laboratory in cases where people are unable to conceive without such intervention. After 2–6 days of development in the petri dish in a growth medium, one or…
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Artificial insemination (AI) involves the extraction and collection of semen together with techniques for depositing semen in the uterus in order to achieve successful fertilization and pregnancy. Throughout the twentieth century, the approach has offered animal breeders the advantage of being able…
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