Biomarkers of oocyte quality
AssigneeThe Trustees of Princeton University
InventorColeen T. MURPHY
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present technology relates to biomarkers of oocyte quality and oocyte quality dealine, as well as methods in connection with such biomarkers, including method of determining the quality of an oocyte, kits for the same, and libraries, reproductive aging gene expression profiles and profile sets with information relating the same.
Claims15
A method of determining the quality of an oocyte in the body of a human without disturbing or destroying the oocyte, the method comprising:
- (a) obtaining a cell sample from a female subject, wherein the cell sample does not include the oocyte;
- (b) measuring a characteristic of a gene or pathway indicative of oocyte quality in the cell sample;
- and
- (c) predicting or determining the quality of the oocyte based on the characteristic of the gene or pathway.
A method of predicting the quality of an oocyte in the body of a mammal without disturbing or destroying the oocyte, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) obtaining a cell sample from the mammal, wherein the cell sample does not include the oocyte;
- (b) conducting an RT-PCR assay or an ELISA assay on the cell sample using a primer for a gene known to be correlated with aging, and comparing the result with a known value obtained from a library of genes known to be correlated with decreased oocyte quality;
- and
- (d) predicting the likelihood of oocyte viability based on (b).
A kit for predicting a woman's oocyte quality without the need for disturbing or destroying an oocyte, the kit comprising:
- (a) a collection container for collecting a cell sample obtained from the woman's body, wherein the cell sample does not include an oocyte;
- (b) a testing assay comprising RT-PCR or ELISA, wherein the testing assay measures a characteristic of a gene, pathway or transcriptional profile characteristic of the cell sample, and wherein the characteristic indicates the likely quality of an oocyte;
- and
- (c) a visual indicator visible to the woman, the visual indicator providing information regarding the predicted quality of the oocyte.
A method of producing a library of genes as markers of oocyte quality, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) gathering expression data from cells of women in a particular age range;
- (b) calculating an average gene expression for each gene at each age in the range by averaging the expression for that gene in a window of a given period of time;
- (c) comparing the average gene expression of (b) to an “age vector” to indicate which genes change most with age;
- and
- (d) calculating a FisherZ score, thereby identifying the genes at the tail ends of the distribution as indicators of biological age.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.