Male genome influences embryonic development as early as pronuclear stage

Abstract

Background Impaired paternal genome expression may cause poor embryonic development after in vitro fertilization (IVF). Objective To evaluate the expression of male infertility on embryo morphokinetics using a time‐lapse incubator and its impact on IVF cycles. Materials and methods This retrospective cohort study followed patients from January 2017 to August 2019. Patients were divided according to the cause of infertility to male factor (study group) and unexplained infertility (control group) and further subdivided according to the severity of male infertility. Results A cohort of 462 patients who underwent IVF cycles, with a total of 3,252 embryos was evaluated. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) was conducted more often in the study group compared to the control group (94% vs. 47%, p < 0.0001) and more embryos were discarded (47% vs. 43%, p = 0.016). Treatment outcomes were comparable in both groups regardless of the severity of male infertility. T3–T5 had a significant impact on embryo quality and more transfer and freeze compared to discard. Maternal age, number of aspirated oocytes, BMI, protocol used, and faster time to T3, T6 were significant in increasing chances of achieving pregnancy. Conclusion The paternal genome may have an earlier impact on embryo development than previously surmised and may also account for faster morphokinetics. Faster embryo cleavage in male infertility IVF‐ICSI cycles may contribute to outcomes comparable to other causes of infertility, in terms of embryo quality and clinical pregnancy rate, despite lower sperm quality, even in cases of severe Oligo‐terato‐Astheno spermia (OTA).

Oocyte degeneration in a cohort adversely affects clinical outcomes in conventional IVF cycles: a propensity score matching study

“…Our study conflicted with the work of Hu et al, which suggested that the cumulative live birth rate in young women was not affected by the presence of oocyte degeneration (18).The controversial results may be caused by the different approaches of insemination (IVF vs. ICSI) or the heterogeneity of patients. The severity of male infertility might also contribute to embryo development competence (19) and therefore affect the cumulative outcome. The ICSI cohorts are expected to have more severe male infertility factors than IVF cohorts.…”