No abstract

Non-DUC p N 2 2 9 2 Patient/Cycle Characteristics (M ± SD) Age at retrieval 35.9 AE 3.5 35.9 AE 3.3 0.95 BMI 26.1 AE 5.4 28.3 AE 5.9 0.12 Eggs retrieved 14.4 AE 8.0 15.7 AE 8.2 0.51 Endometrial thickness (mm) 9.6 AE 1.4 9.9 AE 1.9 0.54 LB rates Overall 31.8% 70.7% <0.01 By developmental day Day 5 45.5% (11) 72.9% (70) 0.08 Day 6 18.2% (11) 63.6% (22) <0.05 By morphology Good 66.7% (3) 75.0% (36) 0.31 Fair 35.7% (14) 70.6% (51) <0.05 Poor 0% (5) 40.0% (5) 0.44 Number of blastocysts transferred shown in parentheses

Background: In vivo, the zona pellucida (ZP) of the oocyte can bind to normally functional sperm. The ZP-sperm interaction is one of the final steps of natural selection during their journey in the female reproductive tract. Aim: In the current study, we evaluated the ability of the ZP of immature oocytes to harvest the fittest sperm. Method: We compared the embryological outcomes (i.e., rates of fertilization, cleavage, blastocyst formation, and highquality blastocysts) of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) using conventionally selected sperm (control group) and ZP-bound sperm (treated group). Results: Our results showed that there were no statistically significant differences for the ZP binding technique over the conventional sperm selection with respect to the rates of fertilization and cleavage. However; the rates of blastocyst formation and high-quality blastocysts were significantly higher in the treated group compared to the control group. Conclusion: These findings imply that the proposed technique (ZP-bound sperm) can serve as a cost-effective and natural sperm selection method that has the potential to improve the embryological and clinical outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).