Objective

Assisted oocyte activation (AOA) can restore fertilization rates after IVF/ICSI cycles with fertilization failure. AOA is an experimental technique, and its downstream effects remain poorly characterized. Clarifying the relationship between AOA and embryo, morphokinetics could offer complementary insights into the quality and viability of the embryos obtained with this technique. The aim of this study is to compare the preimplantation morphokinetic development of embryos derived from ICSI-AOA (experimental group) vs. ICSI cycles (control group).

Methods

A retrospective cohort study was carried out with 141 embryos from fresh oocyte donation cycles performed between 2013 and 2017; 41 embryos were derived from 7 ICSI-AOA cycles and 100 embryos from 18 ICSI cycles. Morphokinetic development of all embryos was followed using a time-lapse system.

Results

We show that embryos from both groups develop similarly for most milestones, with the exception of the time of second polar body extrusion (tPB2) and the time to second cell division (t3).

Conclusions

We conclude that ionomycin mediated AOA does not seem to affect the morphokinetic pattern of preimplantation embryo development, despite the alterations found in tPB2 and t3, which could directly reflect the use of a Ca²⁺ ionophore as a transient and quick non-physiologic increase of free intracytoplasmic Ca²⁺.

中文翻译：

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辅助卵母细胞激活对衍生胚胎形态动力学模式的影响

 客观的

辅助卵母细胞激活 (AOA) 可以在 IVF/ICSI 周期后恢复受精失败的受精率。 AOA 是一种实验性技术，其下游效应仍不清楚。澄清AOA和胚胎之间的关系，形态动力学可以为通过该技术获得的胚胎的质量和活力提供补充见解。本研究的目的是比较 ICSI-AOA（实验组）与 ICSI 周期（对照组）胚胎的植入前形态动力学发育。

 方法

对 2013 年至 2017 年间新鲜卵母细胞捐赠周期中的 141 个胚胎进行了回顾性队列研究； 7 个 ICSI-AOA 周期产生 41 个胚胎，18 个 ICSI 周期产生 100 个胚胎。使用延时系统跟踪所有胚胎的形态动力学发育。

 结果

我们发现，除了第二次极体挤出时间（tPB2）和第二次细胞分裂时间（t3）之外，两组胚胎在大多数里程碑上的发育相似。

 结论

我们得出的结论是，离子霉素介导的 AOA 似乎并不影响植入前胚胎发育的形态动力学模式，尽管在 tPB2 和 t3 中发现了改变，这可以直接反映 Ca ²⁺离子载体的使用作为短暂且快速的非生理性增加。游离胞质内Ca ²⁺ 。