title: The transcriptome of a human polar body accurately reflects its sibling oocyte.
abstract: Improved methods are needed to reliably and accurately evaluate oocyte quality prior to fertilization and transfer into the woman of human embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF). All oocytes that are retrieved and matured in culture are exposed to sperm with little in the way of evaluating the oocyte quality. Furthermore, embryos created through IVF are currently evaluated for developmental potential by morphology, a criterion lacking in quantitation and accuracy. With the recent successes in oocyte vitrification and storage, clear metrics are needed to determine oocyte quality prior to fertilizing. The first polar body (PB) is extruded from the oocyte before fertilization and can be biopsied without damaging the oocyte. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the PB transcriptome is representative of that of the oocyte. Polar body biopsy was performed on metaphase II (MII) oocytes followed by single-cell transcriptome analysis of the oocyte and its sibling PB. Over 12,700 unique mRNAs and miRNAs from the oocyte samples were compared with the 5,431 mRNAs recovered from the sibling PBs (5,256 shared mRNAs or 97%, including miRNAs). The results show that human PBs reflect the oocyte transcript profile and suggests that mRNA detection and quantification through high-throughput quantitative PCR could result in the first molecular diagnostic for gene expression in MII oocytes. This could allow for both oocyte ranking and embryo preferences in IVF applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Klatsky
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carson
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wessel
mesh_terms: D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D008677:Metaphase / Q000235:genetics; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D059705:Polar Bodies / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger