title: Identification of follicular marker genes as pregnancy predictors for human IVF: new evidence for the involvement of luteinization process.
abstract: Multiple pregnancy represents an important health risk to both mother and child in fertility treatment. To reduce a high twin rate, restriction to one embryo transfer is needed. Morphological evaluation methods for predicting embryo viability has significant limitations. Tight communication exists between the follicular cells (FCs) and the oocyte; therefore, developmental competence may be determined by markers expressed in the surrounding FCs. In this study, cells were recovered on a per-follicle basis by individual follicle puncture. Hybridization analysis using a custom-made complementary DNA microarray containing FC transcripts was performed. Genes expressed in FCs associated with good morphological transferred embryos were identified from follicles associated with a pregnancy outcome (pregnancy group) or no pregnancy (non-pregnancy group). Ten candidates from the Pregnancy group and three from the Non-pregnancy group were validated by quantitative RT-PCR. The best predictors associated with pregnancy were UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase-2 and pleckstrin homology-like domain, family A, member 1. Genes assessment showed no significant candidate genes associated with non-pregnancy outcome, but GA-binding protein transcription factor beta1 showed a tendency to be potentially more expressed in the non-pregnancy group. These markers could be related to granulosa luteinization process and could be used to improve embryo selection for successful single embryo transfer.
authors.affiliation: Département des Sciences Animales, Centre de Recherche en Biologie de la Reproduction (CRBR), Université Laval, Montréal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Mélanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamel
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dufort
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Marie-Claude
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Léveillé
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leader
authors.forename: Marc-André
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sirard
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000379:methods*; D005544:Forecasting; D005819:Genetic Markers / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D034461:Luteinization / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers