An evaluation of continuous human embryo culture using the wow dish

Abstract

The WOW dish (LinKIDTMculture dish,DNP) 25 microwells that allows group culture under a single drop of medium. Through its design it is possible to manage embryos separately whilst in group culture. There are several reports (SUGIMURA et al, 2013) suggesting that the WOW dish improved bovine embryo culture results. Therefore, we investigated whether the WOW dish is suitable for continuous human embryo culture without exchange of culture medium. Retrospective study. The study consisted of three experimental groups. “15ul drop culture” group (control) was the standard embryo culture method with exchange from single medium to single medium at Day3 and Day5 using normal 35mm dish. The other 2 groups were “15ul drop continuous culture” and “WOW dish continuous culture” without exchange of culture medium. A total of 143 pronuclear embryos from 12 patients who consented to post-thaw culture were studied. Pronuclear stage frozen embryos were thawed and cultured across the 3 groups for up to 7days (n=47, 48, 48). We compared the incidence of good blastocysts (≥ 3BB,Gardner) and blastocyst formation rate at Days 5, 6 and 7 in the 3 groups. In the control group, blastocyst formation rate at Days 5, 6 and 7 was 46.8%, 57.4% and 59.6%, respectively. The incidence of good blastocysts was 25.5%, 44.7%, and 48.9% (n = 47) respectively. In the “15ul drop continuous culture” group, blastocyst formation rate at Days 5, 6 and 7 was 45.8%,54.2% and 54.2%. The incidence of good blastocysts was 14.6%,31.3%,33.3% (n = 48). In the “WOW dish continuous culture” group, blastocyst formation rate at Days 5, 6 and 7 was 52.1%,58.3% and 58.3%. Incidence of good blastocysts was 25.0%,43.8% and 47.9% (n = 48). Between each observation time interval, there was no significant differences in both the incidence of good blastocysts and the blastocyst formation rate. These results suggest that the WOW dish is suitable for continuous culture without exchange of culture medium compared to the 15ul drop control method.