Increasing the efficacy of mouse embryo assays for quality control in the IVF laboratory

Kaskar, K.; Cochran, R.; Hamilton, D.; David, Amanda; Henkel, Ralf; Gibbons, William E.; Selvanesan, Blesson Chellakkan

doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.07.804

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“…In bovine species, the average percentage of bovine embryos at the two-cell stage on day 2 of embryo culture is around 70%, and the percentage of embryos expanded to blastocyst is close to 30% (Lonergan and Fair, 2014 ). Although these values are lower than ones usually shown by MEA, this can be explained because the strain of mouse embryos commonly used for quality control in IVF laboratories almost always have > 90% blastocyst development, possibly due to improved culture conditions, which hinder the detection of negative effects of media or contact materials that would otherwise affect human embryo development (Kaskar et al, 2019 ). The BEA results in this study showed that this can be a suitable test to detect alteration in the functionality of HRFs that could be toxic for embryos.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Physicochemical and Functional Characterization of Female Reproductive Fluids: A Report of the First Two Infants Born Following Addition of Their Mother's Fluids to the Embryo Culture Media

et al. 2021

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Culture media supplemented with reproductive fluids (RF) have been used in livestock species, improving the efficiency and quality of in vitro produced embryos. However, usefulness in humans is still unknown. In this study, we collected human reproductive fluids (HRFs) ex vivo (from 25 patients undergoing abdominal hysterectomy plus bilateral salpingectomy) and in vivo (from 31 oocyte donors). Afterward, protocols to evaluate their osmolality, pH, total protein concentration, endotoxin level, and sterility were optimized, establishing security ranges for their use as natural additives. In addition, a functional assay was developed with bovine embryos grown in vitro in a medium supplemented with 1% of collected HRFs. Finally, a proof of concept was performed with six patients on post ovulation day 2 to evaluate the full-term viability of embryos grown in media supplemented with autologous uterine fluid, collected under in vivo conditions. Two of the embryos resulted in successful pregnancy and delivery of healthy babies. In conclusion, this study establishes a complete quality control sheet of HRFs as additives for embryo culture media and shows first preliminary data on obtaining healthy offspring derived from embryos grown in media supplemented with HRFs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%