Embryo Culture

Normally fertilized embryos are cultured until either embryo transfer or cryopreservation. Cleavage-stage embryos are assessed for quality using various grading systems that usually evaluate cellular irregularities, fragmentation, granularity, and cleavage rate. Blastocysts are graded based on the degree of blastocoel expansion, as well as the morphology of the inner cell mass (ICM) and the trophectoderm (TE)