Time-lapse evaluation of human embryo development in single versus sequential culture media—a sibling oocyte study

Abstract

Objective To compare the dynamics of early development between embryos cultured in single and sequential media. Design Randomized, comparative study. Setting Private IVF centre. Patients A total of 446 metaphase II oocytes from 51 couples who underwent oocyte retrieval procedure for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Forty-nine resulted in embryo transfer. Intervention Oocytes were split between single and sequential media produced by the same manufacturer and cultured in a time-lapse incubator. Main outcome measures Morphokinetic parameters until the embryos reached the 5-cell stage (t5), utilization, clinical pregnancy and implantation rates. Results Embryos cultured in single media were advanced from the first mitosis cycle and reached 2-to 5-cell stages earlier. There was not any difference between the durations for cell cycle two (cc20t3-t2) and s2 (t4-t3). The utilization, clinical pregnancy and implantation rates did not differ between groups. The proportion of cryopreserved day6 embryos to two pronuclei oocytes was significantly higher in sequential than in single media. Conclusions Morphokinetics of embryo development vary between single and sequential culture media at least until the 5-cell stage. The overall clinical and embryological parameters remain similar regardless of the culture system.

Blastocyst culture using single versus sequential media in clinical IVF: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…In lower resource settings or in any setting addressing cost, a single medium could infer distinct economic advantages. Moreover, compatibility with time-lapse systems is undoubtedly a significant benefit and a key reason for the increasing popularity of continuous single medium protocols [20,35,40,60]. Of note, however, current evidence does not suggest a clear benefit of using time-lapse for embryo selection, and these systems generally increase the overall cost of the IVF procedure [62].…”

“…We further examined 23 studies for eligibility: -A total of three studies were excluded: Two studies used Fertilization and then Cleavage Medium and not a system for Cleavage and then Blastocyst [20,21], and one study was excluded because a different oxygen tension was used in the different groups [22]. -A total of 20 studies were included in this review: Ten studies that randomized oocytes/zygotes [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] and two studies that randomized women [33,34] were included in the forest plots; however, six studies that randomized oocytes/zygotes [35][36][37][38][39][40] and two studies that randomized women [41,42] were not included in the forest plots because it was not possible to extract data for the metaanalyses.…”

Live births resulting from 0PN-derived embryos in conventional IVF cycles

“…Timing of embryo development is a process which is influenced by numerous variables not only from the laboratory but presumably also from the patient. From a lab point of view, temperature and PH are the most obvious denominators, but culture medium does also play a role [19]. All the variables mentioned above may have an impact on the results of fertilization assessment and later on embryo progression and development.…”

Improved Murine Blastocyst Quality and Development in a Single Culture Medium Compared to Sequential Culture Media

“…Methods used for evaluation and measurement of embryonic development in humans are divergent. [17][18][19][20] This lack of consistency interferes with accurate interlaboratory comparisons. Albeit for several decades, murine embryo bioassays have been a standard of media quality control in many human IVF laboratories.…”

“…The quality of human embryos developing in single medium versus sequential culture media, however, remains controversial. [15][16][17][18][19] Greatly needed clinically useful biomarkers for embryo quality and development are lacking. Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1) and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L3 (UCHL3) are 2 deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) regulating the oocyte/ embryo ubiquitin-proteasome system by targeting and cleaving covalent ubiquitin-ubiquitin and ubiquitin-substrate protein bonds.…”