Human life begins in a bright flash of light at fertilization, when a sperm meets an egg, scientists have shown, after capturing the amazing ‘fireworks’ on video.
An explosion of tiny sparks emerges from the egg at the exact moment of conception.
Not only is it an amazing sight, highlighting the moment when a new life begins, the size of the flash can be used to determine the quality of the fertilized egg.
Researchers from Northwestern UniversityIn Chicago, they noticed that some of the eggs are brighter than others, showing that they are more likely to produce a healthy baby.
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The discovery could help fertility doctors choose the best fertilized eggs to transfer during in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“It was remarkable,” said Professor Teresa Woodruff, one of the study’s two lead authors and an expert in ovarian biology at Northwestern.
“We discovered the zinc spark only five years ago, and seeing zinc radiate in an explosion from every human egg was impressive.”
“This means that if you can see the zinc spark at the moment of fertilization, you will immediately know which eggs are the best to transfer in in vitro fertilization.”
“It is a way of classifying the quality of the egg in a way that we have never been able to evaluate before.” “All biology begins at the time of fertilization, but we know almost nothing about the events that occur in humans.”
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Today, about 50 percent of fertilized eggs do not develop properly, and experts believe that faulty genetic code could be responsible.
Some clinics take videos of the developing egg to try to detect problems early, while others look for genetic mutations, but that is an invasive procedure that can damage the egg. Often times, the doctor decides which eggs look healthier.
But the new findings could give an additional indication that an egg is blooming. A video of nine human eggs that came into contact with the sperm enzyme showed that two flickered much more than the rest.
And the LORD God created man Ephraim out of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became man to man.
Vaitzer Hashem Eloqím et-ha’adám afár min-ha’adamá vaipáj be’apáiv nishmata jayím vaiehi ha’adám le’néfesh jaiáh.
The Almighty Eternal formed the Human Being from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Adam became a living being.
Genesis 2: 7
“This is an important discovery because it can provide us with a non-invasive and easily visible way to assess the health of an egg and eventually an embryo before implantation,” said co-author Dr. Eve Feinberg, who cared for patients who They provided eggs for the study of basic sciences and collaborated with the research team.
“There are no tools currently available to tell us if it is a good quality egg. We often don’t know if the egg is really viable until we see if a pregnancy occurs.
“That is why this is so transformative. If we have the skill in advance to see which is a good egg and which is not, it will help us to know which to transfer, avoid a lot of sadness and achieve pregnancy much faster.
The bright flash occurs the moment sperm enter an egg, because it produces a surge of calcium that triggers the release of zinc from the egg. As zinc is fired, it binds to small molecules that emit a fluorescence that can be picked up by the cameras of microscopes.
In the experiment, the scientists use sperm enzymes instead of actual sperm to show what happens at the time of conception.
‘These fluorescence microscopy studies establish that the zinc spark is produced in the biology of the human egg, and that it can be observed outside the cell,’ said Professor Tom O’Halloran, co-lead author.
In a companion paper published in Scientific Reports on March 18, a zinc spark is shown at the precise moment a sperm enters the egg.
This discovery was made by Nan Zhang, a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern. Little is known about the events that occur at the time of fertilization, because it is difficult to capture the precise moment of entry of the sperm.
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