Abstract
Embryo quality is crucial to the outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF); however, the ability to precisely distinguish the embryos with higher reproductive potential from others is poor. Morphologic evaluation used to play an important role in assessing embryo quality, but it is somewhat subjective. The culture medium is the immediate environment of the embryos in vitro, and a change of the substances in the culture medium is possibly related to the embryo quality. Thus, the present study aims to determine whether metabolomic profiling of the culture medium using Raman spectroscopy adjunct to morphology correlates with the reproductive potential of embryos in IVF and, thus, to look for a new method of assessing embryo quality. Fifty seven spent media samples were detected by Raman spectroscopy. Combined with embryo morphology scores, we found that embryos in culture media with less than 0.012 of sodium pyruvate and more than −0.00085 phenylalanine have a high reproductive potential, with up to 85.7% accuracy compared with clinical pregnancy. So, sodium pyruvate and phenylalanine in culture medium play an important role in the development of the embryo. Raman spectroscopy is an important tool that provides a new and accurate assessment of higher quality embryos.
Highlights
Since the first successful pregnancy using in vitro fertilization (IVF) was reported in 1978, human assisted reproductive technology (ART) has made considerable progress
The present study was intended to assess the metabolomic profile of embryo culture media using Raman spectroscopy and to examine the capability of predicting pregnancy outcome using this technique compared with morphologic methods
Our results suggest that the metabolomic profiles of embryonic development in IVF may associate with the ability to implant
Summary
Since the first successful pregnancy using in vitro fertilization (IVF) was reported in 1978, human assisted reproductive technology (ART) has made considerable progress. In the ART cycle, the multiple pregnancy rate is significantly higher, reaching 20%–40% or even 50% [5] This phenomenon is largely due to our inability to predict the potential of an embryo. As we are unable to predict embryo potential, IVF centers have historically chosen to transfer multiple embryos simultaneously to avoid implantation failure and achieve a relatively high pregnancy rate. This approach led to two major problems in IVF: a low implantation rate and high multiple pregnancy rate. The present study was intended to assess the metabolomic profile of embryo culture media using Raman spectroscopy and to examine the capability of predicting pregnancy outcome using this technique compared with morphologic methods. We aimed at determining a rapid, noninvasive method for the assessment of the developmental potential of embryos
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