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. 2013 Mar 25;14(4):6556-70.
doi: 10.3390/ijms14046556.

Noninvasive metabolomic profiling of human embryo culture media using a simple spectroscopy adjunct to morphology for embryo assessment in in vitro fertilization (IVF)

Qinghong Zhao  1 , Tailang Yin, Jin Peng, Yujie Zou, Jing Yang, Aiguo Shen, Jiming Hu
Affiliations

Noninvasive metabolomic profiling of human embryo culture media using a simple spectroscopy adjunct to morphology for embryo assessment in in vitro fertilization (IVF)

Qinghong Zhao et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Embryo quality is crucial to the outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF); however, the ability to precisely distinguish the embryos with higher reproductive potential from others is poor. Morphologic evaluation used to play an important role in assessing embryo quality, but it is somewhat subjective. The culture medium is the immediate environment of the embryos in vitro, and a change of the substances in the culture medium is possibly related to the embryo quality. Thus, the present study aims to determine whether metabolomic profiling of the culture medium using Raman spectroscopy adjunct to morphology correlates with the reproductive potential of embryos in IVF and, thus, to look for a new method of assessing embryo quality. Fifty seven spent media samples were detected by Raman spectroscopy. Combined with embryo morphology scores, we found that embryos in culture media with less than 0.012 of sodium pyruvate and more than -0.00085 phenylalanine have a high reproductive potential, with up to 85.7% accuracy compared with clinical pregnancy. So, sodium pyruvate and phenylalanine in culture medium play an important role in the development of the embryo. Raman spectroscopy is an important tool that provides a new and accurate assessment of higher quality embryos.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The average spectrum of the samples( formula image) and the fitting spectrum(…).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The distribution of 45 samples according to the two relative concentrations.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The result of 45 samples according to the morphology scoring and pyruvate/albumin relative fitting coefficients.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The result of 45 samples according to the morphology scoring and phenylalanine/albumin relative fitting coefficients.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The result of 45 samples using pyruvate/albumin and phenylalanine/albumin relative fitting coefficients (imp = implanted).
Figure 6
Figure 6
The average spectrum of spent culture media after the removal of the mineral oil layer using capillary siphoning (1) and the average spectrum of control samples (MC) (2).
Figure 7
Figure 7
The average spectrum of all samples.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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