title: A correlative study on the embryotrophic property of patient's serum and the outcome of in vitro fertilization of human oocytes.
abstract: The embryotrophic property of patient's serum previously used for in vitro fertilization (IVF) was studied by culturing postimplantation organogenesis-stage mouse embryos in a medium containing equal parts of Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium and the patient's serum. Results of embryo culture experiments were generally found to correlate well with the outcome of IVF. Serum of patients whose oocytes were fertilized and developed to cleavage-stage embryos scored highest for embryotrophic parameters such as morphologic score and protein content of the mouse embryo. There was no significant difference in terms of serum embryotrophic activity between patients who became pregnant after embryo transfer and those who did not. When mouse embryos were cultured in serum from cycles with poor IVF results, i.e., oocytes failed to be fertilized or fertilized oocytes failed to cleave or cleave abnormally, significantly retarded embryonic growth and a higher incidence of malformed embryos were observed. However, in two cases where IVF failed as a result of poor semen quality, the patient's serum was found to be supportive of mouse embryonic development.
authors: Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T.
authors: P P
authors: PP
authors: Tam
authors: W Y
authors: WY
authors: Chan
authors: K R
authors: KR
authors: Mao
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Chiu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001769:Blood; D046508:Culture Techniques; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000502:physiology*; D005314:Embryonic and Fetal Development; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000097:blood*; D051379:Mice; D009865:Oocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy