Effect of oxidative stress in semen, follicular fluid and embryo culture medium on the outcome of assisted reproduction

Abstract

Background: Although many advances have been made in the field of assisted reproduction, the clinical outcomes remain less than desirable. Oxidative stress has been recently blamed on both male and female partners. Aim of the study: This work aimed to study the effect of oxidative stress in semen, follicular fluid, and embryo culture medium on the outcome of assisted reproduction. Patients and Methods: Fifty couples with unexplained infertility were subjected to a combined treatment of IVF and ICSI. Oxidative stress was evaluated by measuring the oxidative-reduction potential (ORP) in the native semen sample, the follicular fluid pool and the spent culture medium of individually IVF cultured embryos. Results: ORP in the native semen was found to be a good predictor of fertilization and clinical pregnancy in IVF with a cut-off point of 1.57 and 0.75mV/10 6 sperm/ml, respectively. There was also a positive and highly significant correlation between the ORP levels in the follicular fluid pool and the fertilization rate (r= 0.4217; P=0.002288), but there was no statistically significant difference between ORP in the follicular fluid pool of women who became pregnant and those who did not (P = 0.997425). In addition, the mean ORP in the spent culture medium of women who became pregnant (215.78 mV/ml ± 38.52) was lower than in those who did not become pregnant (229.22 mV/ml ± 31.56) but the difference was also not statistically significant (P = 0.3170). Conclusion:It is concluded that ORP in the native semen and in the spent culture medium in IVF are good predictors of fertilization and clinical pregnancy and that ORP in the follicular fluid is not.

Effects of reactive oxygen species, lipids peroxidation, and total antioxidant capacity on sperm morphological functional characteristics and quality embryological development ICSI outcomes

“…In infertile men, the increased levels of seminal lipid peroxides/MDA negatively correlated with normal spermatozoa morphology, vitality, seminal antioxidants, and fertilization rate (Agarwal et al, 2014a). In native semen samples and culture media of oocytes and embryos, the increased values of oxidative-reduction potentials (ORP) were negatively correlated with fertilizing capacity, excellent embryos transfer, and pregnancy rate (Sallam et al, 2021). In infertile men, the elevated levels of seminal ROS production, lipids peroxidation, and DNA fragmentation index markedly attenuated conventional and functional semen parameters including sperm concentration, total count, progressive motility, normal morphology, and antioxidant capacity compared to fertile men group (Mayorga-Torres et al, 2017).…”

Advanced strategies for single embryo selection in assisted human reproduction: A review of clinical practice and research methods

“…Another system for measuring oxidative stress incorporates electrochemical technology to calculate the static oxidative-reduction potential (ORP) in millivolts (mV) [150]. Sallam et al [152] demonstrated that the ORP levels in the culture medium of fertilized oocytes were lower than those of unfertilized oocytes. Similarly, the ORP levels measured in the culture medium of embryos that resulted in pregnancy were lower than those of embryos that did not lead to pregnancy.…”

Measuring Reactive Oxygen Species in Semen for Male Preconception Care: A Scientist Perspective

“…One potential limitation is that measurements are temperature sensitive (2–37 °C) with levels significantly increasing outside of this range [ 47 ]. While the MiOXSYS System™ has been evaluated in a number of large cohorts of infertile men, we could find only one published study to date (50 idiopathic infertile couples) that extended their analysis to evaluate fertilization and pregnancy outcomes, finding a cut off sORPmV < 1.57 mV/10 6 /mL predictive of fertilization and < 0.75 mV/10 6 /mL for clinical pregnancy [ 52 ]. Further large-scale cohort studies extending their analysis into pregnancy and live birth outcomes are still needed to determine the clinical utility of using MiOXSYS™ for ART.…”