Zinc Increase the Fertility of Eggs and Fetus

Scientists and obstetricians have long tried to figure out what makes a good egg that will produce healthy embryos. This is a critical question for obstetricians to determine which eggs which is isolated from a woman will produce the best embryos and, ultimately, babies.

A new research shows that healthy eggs requires large amounts of zinc substance to reach maturity and ready to be fertilized. Findings by researchers at Northwestern University, United States, eventually could help doctors assess the best eggs for fertility treatment.

“Understanding the role of zinc can eventually help us measure the quality of the eggs and lead to advances in fertility treatments,” said Alison Kim, a Ph.D. obstetrics and gynecology student at Northwestern University Medical School, according to Medical News Today “Currently we can not predict which eggs will produce the best embryos and will produce a baby. Not all the eggs can be a a healthy embryo”

There is no link found yet between zinc content in egg and nutritional status of the women, but Kim is planning to investigate this area.

Kim is the lead author of a paper which will be published in the Nature Chemical Biology journal upcoming September edition.

In laboratory experiments with mouse models, scientists at Northwestern have found that the egg became greedy for zinc and obtained a 50 percent increase in the metal to reach full maturity before fertilization.