ReviewFrontiers in physiology2022
The Quiet Embryo Hypothesis: 20 years on.
Review in Frontiers in physiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Endometrial immune profiling and precision therapy increase live birth rate after embryo transfer: a randomised controlled trial.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Trial
- The molecular mechanisms of crista formation: how mitochondria give themselves breathing room.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Metabolic imaging for gamete and embryo assessment through advanced microscopy technologies: a novel avenue for artificial intelligence?Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2026Review
- Use of low versus high oxygen tension during pre-maturation only in capacitation in vitro maturation (CAPA-IVM): impact on oocyte maturation and metabolism.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2026Article
- Multi-omics biomarkers in female fertility: from oocyte quality to endometrial receptivity and clinical translation.Biomarker research · 2026Review
- Article
- When bovine life begins in a petri dish: transcriptomic insights from embryos to calves conceived in vitro.The Journal of reproduction and development · 2026Review
- Bridging the gap between basic research and commercial application at scale for in vitro bovine embryo production.Animal reproduction · 2026Article
- Enhancing antioxidant capacity via NRF2 pathway activation to mitigate heat stress-induced oxidative damage in bovine granulosa cells, oocytes, and embryos.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Article
- Review
- Effects of physiological oxygen tension on human cumulus-oocyte-complex metabolism during in vitro maturation: an exploratory study.Journal of ovarian research · 2025Article
- Oocyte Exposure to Low Levels of Triclosan Has a Significant Impact on Subsequent Embryo Physiology.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Delayed blastocyst development is associated with altered metabolism and proteome in male and female bovine embryos†.Biology of reproduction · 2025Article
- Metabolic Objectives and Trade-Offs: Inference and Applications.Metabolites · 2025Review
- Maturational competence of equine oocytes is associated with alterations in their 'cumulome'.Molecular human reproduction · 2024Article
- Determinants of thermal homeostasis in the preimplantation embryo: a role for the embryo's central heating system?Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2024Review
- Article
- Associations of the Single Bovine Embryo Growth Media Metabolome with Successful Pregnancy.Metabolites · 2024Article
- Amino acid intake strategies define pluripotent cell states.Nature metabolism · 2024Article
- Influences of Supplementing Selective Members of the Interleukin-6 Cytokine Family on Bovine Oocyte Competency.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This article revisits the hypothesis, proposed in 2002, that the successful development of oocytes and preimplantation mammalian embryos is associated with a metabolism which is "quiet" rather than "active", within limits which had yet to be defined. A distinction was drawn between Functional Quietness, Loss of quietness in response to stress and Inter-individual differences in embryo metabolism and here we document applications of the hypothesis to other areas of reproductive biology. In order to encompass the requirement for "limits" and replace the simple distinction between "quiet" and "active", evidence is presented which led to a re-working of the hypothesis by proposing the existence of an optimal range of metabolic activity, termed a "Goldilocks zone", within which oocytes and embryos with maximum developmental potential will be located. General and specific mechanisms which may underlie the Goldilocks phenomenon are proposed and the added value that may be derived by expressing data on individual embryos as distributions rather than mean values is emphasised especially in the context of the response of early embryos to stress and to the concept of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. The article concludes with a cautionary note that being "quietly efficient" may not always ensure optimal embryo survival.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.