Effects of maternal ageing on ICSI outcomes and embryo development in relation to oocytes morphological characteristics of birefringent structures

Abstract

SummaryThe aim of this study was to determine the morphological characteristics of the older reproductive aged women's oocytes and to reveal the influence of these characteristics on intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes. The oocytes of women older than 35 years of age were evaluated retrospectively. Non-invasive polarization microscopy (PolScope) examinations of mature oocytes were performed by measurement of meiotic spindles' length, area and retardance and zona pellucida thickness and retardance. Fertilization and conception competence and the correlation with the birefringent structures were assessed. Two hundred and thirteen mature oocytes from 54 women were evaluated with a PolScope. Length of the meiotic spindle was shown to be related to fertilization success of women with advanced maternal age. In conclusion, the PolScope is a useful device used to identify the oocyte quality. Quantitative measurements of meiotic spindle parameters may be valuable for the selection of high-quality oocytes that have the potential for embryo development in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) laboratory of women older than 35 years of age who are mostly poor responders.

Selection of competent oocytes by morphological criteria for assisted reproductive technologies

“…The oocytes having meiotic spindle lengths of more than 12 µm possessed higher chances of producing blastocysts when compared to the oocytes with meiotic spindle lengths of 10-12 µm or less than 10 µm (Rama Raju et al, 2007). Similarly, Korkmaz, Tekin, Sakinci, and Ercan (2015) found a correlation between the length of spindles and fertilization success of women older than 35 years old (Korkmaz et al, 2015). In a recent study by Tomari et al (2018) reported that the oocytes whose meiotic spindle sizes were between 90 and 120 μm 2 had higher fertilization, blastocyst formation, and clinical pregnancy rates when compared with the oocytes having larger or smaller spindle sizes.…”

“…• Visualization ↑ ZP birefringence (Madaschi et al, 2009) ↑ fertilization rate (Braga et al, 2008;Garcia-Oro et al, 2017;Gonzalez-Ortega et al, 2016;Petersen et al, 2009;Rama Raju et al, 2007) ↑ normal pronuclei appearance (Petersen et al, 2009) ↑ cleavage rate (Petersen et al, 2009) ↑ Day 3 embryo quality (Petersen et al, 2009) ↑ embryo quality (Gonzalez-Ortega et al, 2016) ↑ blastocyst development (Braga et al, 2008;Garcia-Oro et al, 2017;Petersen et al, 2009;Rama Raju et al, 2007) ↑ implantation rate (Garcia-Oro et al, 2017;Madaschi et al, 2008) ↑ conception cycle (Gonzalez-Ortega et al, 2016) ↑ pregnancy rate (Konc et al, 2004;Madaschi et al, 2008) • Longer spindle length ↑ Fertilization success (Korkmaz et al, 2015) ↑ blastocyst formation (Rama Raju et al, 2007) • Misaligned meiotic spindle position ↑ Fertilization defect (Rienzi et al, 2003) • Localization to beneath or adjacent to PB ↑ Fertilization rate (Fang et al, 2007) • Higher retardance ↑ Better pronuclear score (Shen et al, 2006) ↑ blastocyst formation (Rama Raju et al, 2007) ↑ pregnancy rate (Shen et al, 2006) • Higher density ↑ Pregnancy rate (Kilani et al, 2009) • Normally appearing spindles ↑ Fertilization rate (Kilani et al, 2009;Tilia et al, 2020) ↑ Day 3 embryo development (Tilia et al, 2020) ↑ blastocyst quality (Tilia et al, 2020) ↑ euploid blastocyst number (Tilia et al, 2020) ↑ implantation rate (Kilani et al, 2009) ↑ pregnancy rate (Kilani et al, 2009) ↑ live birth rate (Kilani et al, 2009) • Fine aligned ↑ Embryo cleavage (Asa et al, 2017) ↑ embryo quality <...>…”

Effect of a Combination of Myo-Inositol, Alpha-Lipoic Acid, and Folic Acid on Oocyte Morphology and Embryo Morphokinetics in non-PCOS Overweight/Obese Patients Undergoing IVF: A Pilot, Prospective, Randomized Study

“…Interestingly enough, we also reported that an increased MS size was associated with early embryo development arrest, before reaching the blastocyst stage [ 3 ]. Furthermore, the impact of female age on oocyte birefringent structures has been previously described and, in general, considered to be quite limited [ 3 , 51 , 54 , 55 ]. In the present study, comparable maturation, fertilization, and cleavage rates were observed in the two groups, suggesting that in the analysed population the woman’s age may have exerted only a limited effect (if any) on oocyte quality and that the significant differences observed in the birefringent structures were likely to be related mainly to factors other than age.…”

Noninvasive imaging systems for gametes and embryo selection in IVF programs: a review

“…Numerous studies assessed the effect of MS presence in human MII oocytes on ART outcomes, however, with controversial results. More studies showed that the presence of a spindle is a predictive factor of fertilization (Konc et al, 2004;Shen et al, 2005;Raju et al, 2007;Madaschi et al, 2008;Kilani et al, 2011;Kilani & Chapman, 2014;Korkmaz et al, 2015;Matsunaga & Horiuchi, 2015;González-Ortega et al, 2016;Raubenheimer, 2016), whereas others found insignificant differences in fertilization rates between the oocytes with and without a detectable MS (Moon et al, 2003;Fang et al, 2007;Ebner et al, 2009). A meta-analysis study investigated the finding of 10 trials about the influence of MS visualization in human oocytes on ICSI outcomes (Petersen et al, 2009).…”