Fig. 5.

Overview of the relative growth of IVF embryos/fetuses and placentae (6, 15, 16). IVF placental and fetal weights are expressed as a percentage of control embryos. Control data are normalized to 1 at each time point. A, The placenta. IVF blastocysts have reduced number of TE cells (E4.5), the precursor of the placenta; the placenta becomes progressively larger during gestation and ultimately becomes larger than those of control fetuses. B, The embryo/fetus. IVF blastocysts have similar number of ICM cells as control embryos. However, the IVF fetuses have statistically lower weight from E12.5 to E18.5. The fetuses increase in size relative to controls during the fetal period, so that at birth, their weight is the same. KSOM_AA, K-modified simplex optimized medium with amino acids.