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Comparative Study
. 2018 Mar;35(3):515-522.
doi: 10.1007/s10815-017-1100-6. Epub 2017 Dec 15.

Comparison of the development of human embryos cultured in either an EmbryoScope or benchtop incubator

R Sciorio  1 , J K Thong  2 , S J Pickering  2
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Comparison of the development of human embryos cultured in either an EmbryoScope or benchtop incubator

R Sciorio et al. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2018 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: In this current study, our main goal was to establish that EmbryoScope incubation environment is comparable to standard incubation.

Methods: The development of sibling human zygotes was compared after culture in either a benchtop incubator (SI) or an EmbryoScope time-lapse incubator (ES). Between May 2015 to April 2016, a total of 581 normally fertilized 2PN, pronuclear-stage embryos, from 47 patients were allocated to culture in either a benchtop incubator (SI) or an EmbryoScope incubator (ES).

Results: The development of embryos to cleavage (up to day 3) and blastocyst stages (day 5/6) was compared between the two different incubators. The proportion of good quality embryos was higher in the ES group compared to the SI on day 2 (66.8 vs. 50.5%, P = 0.014) and on day 3 (75.1 vs. 56.0%, P = 0.006). Those differences were statistically significant. A higher proportion of embryos developed to good quality blastocysts when cultured in the EmbryoScope compared to the benchtop (49.4 vs. 42.0%, P = 0.24), but this was not significant. Finally, no significant differences were noted with the proportion of blastocysts chosen for cryopreservation on day 5/6 in the two incubators.

Conclusions: The findings support the view that the EmbryoScope incubator supports at least equivalent in vitro development of human embryos compared to other standard incubation methods and may promote improved development during early cleavage stages.

Keywords: Human embryo culture; Morphologic analysis; Time-lapse monitoring.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and animal rights

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments. For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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