Evaluation of Epigenetic Factors in Surrogacy: A Mini-Review

Surrogacy is an assisted reproductive technology in which the intended parents allocate the gestation and birth to another woman named the surrogate mother. From this view of surrogacy, although there is no genetic relationship between surrogate mother and fetus, this approach is faced with some issues such as the epigenetic effect, which is the environmental influence on gene expression. Epigenetics plays a critical role in ovulation, spermatogenesis, and embryonic growth, development, and health. DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNAs activity are the major epigenetic mechanisms. In this mini-review, we focus on the possibility of epigenetic alterations during in vivo embryo culture and intrauterine life.