Effect of melatonin on the clinical outcome of patients with repeated cycles after failed cycles of in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection

Abstract

Summary To explore whether embryo culture with melatonin (MT) can improve the embryonic development and clinical outcome of patients with repeated cycles after in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) failure, immature oocytes from controlled ovarian superovulation cycles were collected for in vitro maturation (IVM) and ICSI. The obtained embryos were cultured in 0, 10–11, 10–9, 10–7 and 10–5 M MT medium respectively, and 10–9 M was screened out as the optimal concentration. Subsequently, 140 patients who underwent failed IVF/ICSI cycles received 140 cycles of embryo culture in vitro with a medium containing 10–9 M MT, these 140 MT culture cycles were designated as the experimental group (10–9 M group), and the control group was the previous failed cycles of patients (0 M group). The results showed that the fertilization, cleavage, high-quality embryo, blastocyst, and high-quality blastocyst rates of the 10–9 M group were significantly higher than those of the 0 M group (P < 0.01; P < 0.01; P < 0.0001; P < 0.0001; P < 0.0001). To date, in total, 50 vitrified-warmed cycle transfers have been performed in the 10–9 M group and the implantation rate, biochemical pregnancy rate and clinical pregnancy rate were significantly higher than those in the 0 M group (all P < 0.0001). Two healthy infants were delivered successfully and the other 18 women who achieved clinical pregnancy also had good examination indexes. Therefore the application of 10–9 M MT to embryo cultures in vitro improved embryonic development in patients with repeated cycles after failed IVF/ICSI cycles and had good clinical outcomes. Trial registration: ChiCTR2100045552.

Effects of Melatonin, GM-CSF, IGF-1, and LIF in Culture Media on Embryonic Development: Potential Benefits of Individualization

“…Overall, current studies support the finding that melatonin may enhance preimplantation embryonic development [67,68,[70][71][72] and the success rate of implantation [68,72], as indicated by human clinical studies and animal research. Furthermore, some studies indicate that melatonin could result in a reduction in ROS during embryo development, and this may lead to a decrease in DNA damage [70,72,73].…”

“…Another human study investigated the embryonic development rate, implantation rate, and live birth rate based on the presence or absence of melatonin supplementations; this study used 140 patients who underwent at least one failed repeated IVF/ICSI cycle [68]. The melatonin group showed a significant increase in fertilization rate (87.7% (Melatonin) vs. 83.6% (Control), p < 0.01), cleavage development rate (94.1% (Melatonin) vs. 90.5% (Control), p < 0.01), high-quality embryo rate (58.3% (Melatonin) vs. 43.8% (Control), p < 0.0001), and high-quality blastocyst development rate (43.4% (Melatonin) vs. 22.9% (Control), p < 0.0001).…”

Is Melatonin the “Next Vitamin D”?: A Review of Emerging Science, Clinical Uses, Safety, and Dietary Supplements

“…Since melatonin is a strong scavenger of oxidative factors, it could improve both male and female fertility and sperm and oocyte quality, resulting in increased fertilization [ 135 , 136 , 137 , 138 ]. Melatonin shows promise for advanced age infertility and improving IVF outcomes [ 139 , 140 , 141 , 142 , 143 ].…”

Melatonin Protects Mitochondrial Function and Inhibits Oxidative Damage against the Decline of Human Oocytes Development Caused by Prolonged Cryopreservation

“…Comparison of baseline data of the 5 groups of patients in the detection of ROS; Table S4. Comparison of baseline data of the 5 groups of patients in the detection of GSH; references [ 26 , 27 , 41 , 42 , 43 ] were mentioned.…”