MITOCHONDRIAL DNA COPY NUMBER OF CUMULUS CELLS IS NOT LINKED TO EMBRYO IMPLANTATION IN GOOD PROGNOSIS IVF PATIENTS

Abstract

To explore the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number of cumulus cells (CCs) could be used as a biomarker of the potential of embryo implantation in good prognosis IVF patients? This was a prospective cohort study on good prognosis IVF patients from a large reproductive medicine centre. A total of 392 embryos from 61 cycles (including 31 implanted and 30 non-implanted cycles) were enrolled in the study. The corresponding CCs mtDNA copy number of embryos was tested by real-time quantitative PCR. The corresponding CCs mtDNA copy numbers were compared between implanted and non-implanted embryos and also compared between high-quality and poor-quality embryos. Then, mitochondrial membrane potentials of the corresponding CCs were compared between high-quality and poor-quality embryos to verify the above experiment’s findings. For the same population, the mean CCs mtDNA copy numbers for implanted and non-implanted embryos were 255.61±81.02 and 254.50±73.29, and those for high-quality and poor-quality embryos were 266.02±98.56 and 295.71±70.64, respectively. There was no difference in CCs mtDNA copy number between implanted and non-implanted embryos or between high-quality and poor-quality embryos. The mitochondrial membrane potential assay was assessed by JC-1, and the quantitative analysis revealed that the ratio of red to green fluorescence did not differ significantly between high-quality and poor-quality groups. Measurement of CC mtDNA copy number might not provide any advantage to embryo prioritisation in good prognosis IVF patients. Any suggested link between CCs mtDNA copy number and embryo implantation requires further validation.