A comparative study on the results of agonist and antagonist protocols based on serum AMH levels in patients undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection

Women with extreme low AMH values could have in vitro fertilization success

Circulating anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) and antral follicle count (AFC) are the best predictors of IVF outcomes. However, in extreme low AMH range especially for young patients, AMH prediction power loose its specificity to give real idea of pregnancy chance with IVF treatments and good prognosis of an extremely reduced ovarian reserve and expected poor response. Indeed, this retrospective study was conducted to evaluate IVF outcomes in patients following IVF-ICSI program with extremely low AMH levels (≤0.4 ng/ml; n = 390) compared to those presenting normal AMH range (1.3-2.6 ng/ml; n = 352) considered as control group. As expected, number of oocytes retrieved per patient, and embryological outcomes were significantly lower in the extremely low AMH levels group compared to control. Moreover, it was same trend concerning clinical outcomes but we have to note that even in extreme low AMH, patients could reach ineligible satisfying clinical pregnancy rate compared to control (17% vs 41%). For patients younger than 35 years, clinical pregnancy rate improved to 27%. Women with extreme low AMH values and especially younger ones, still have reasonable chances of achieving pregnancy, highlighting the default view of this category generally excluded from IVF program.

Association between early embryo morphokinetics plus cumulus cell gene expression and assisted reproduction outcomes in polycystic ovary syndrome women

RESEARCH QUESTION

Can a combination of time-lapse morphokinetic parameters and cumulus cell gene expression in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) women be used to predict assisted reproductive treatment outcome?

DESIGN

A total of 547 embryos from 100 intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles were evaluated. Fifty women with PCOS and 50 women who were categorized as tubal factor infertility were recruited. Time-lapse records were annotated for time to pronuclear fading (tPNf), time to 2 to 8 cells (t2-t8), reverse cleavage, direct cleavage and also for the presence of multinucleation. Expression levels of three genes involved in mitotic divisions, diaphanous-related formin 2 (DIAPH2), nibrin (NBN) and NIMA-related protein kinase (NEK4), were measured in 100 associated cumulus cell samples using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS

Expression of DIAPH2 and NBN was significantly higher in the embryos of PCOS patients that resulted in implantation, biochemical and clinical pregnancies as well as live birth compared with embryos that were negative for these outcomes (P <0.01). However, in the tubal factor group, NBN gene expression was significantly higher in embryos resulting in biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy and live birth (P <0.01) only. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that tPNf together with DIAPH2 gene expression were independent prognostic factors of clinical pregnancy rate and live birth in both groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Some time-lapse embryo parameters may be related to cumulus gene expression and clinical outcome. Furthermore, the expressions of cumulus cell genes involved in mitotic divisions are significantly associated with ICSI outcome using Day 3 embryo transfer.