THE OOCYTE MATURATION FAILURE AND EMBRYO ARREST: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY IN THE THIRTEEN-YEAR PERIOD

Abstract

Oocyte maturation and embryo arrest are well-known cases in clinical practice but this issue is still not sufficiently analyzed. According to investigations on animal models more than 35 genes have been found to be associated with abnormal early embryonic development. It has already been confirmed that five human genes, such as TUBB8, TLE6, PATL2, PADI6 and KHDC3L, have the similar functions. According to the Istanbul consensus, arrested embryos are those that have not cleaved during a 24-h period. There is a group of patients for whom the embryo arrest is a stable problem and recurs in subsequent IVF cycles. Patients with inability to obtain mature, morphologically normal egg that can be fertilized are rarer.The aim of the study was to evaluate the frequency of embryo arrest and oocyte maturation arrest within patients under 37 years of age. Retrospective study. Cycles of 6015 patients in the thirteen-year period (2006-2018) were analyzed in this retrospective study. Only patients under 37 years of age, who underwent routine stimulation protocols, were included in the investigation. The embryo and oocyte maturation arrest group included patients who did not receive any blastocysts during all their stimulations. The analysis showed that the group with embryo and oocyte maturation arrest reached to 3.34 % (n =201). Additionally two groups of poor (n=851) and good responders (n=5164) were assessed. It was shown that the percentage of patients with embryo and oocyte maturation arrest in the group of good responders was 1.8% (n=92) compared with the poor responders group – 12.8% (n=109). This study included a group of patients from only one IVF clinic. For clearer understanding of this issue there is a need of similar analysis among different groups within different populations. According to our assumptions, the results may be the same. It is important to analyze other populations for more accurate evaluation of embryo and oocyte maturation arrest frequency. Moreover, it is crucial to assess the genetic background of such conditions. The identification of new genes that play a key role in early embryonic development will allow to create a new genetic screening panel.