Improving the quality of IVF as an assisted reproductive technology: by enriching the culture medium
Improving the quality of IVF as an assisted reproductive technology: by enriching the culture medium
Zeinab Bahrami,1Mahmood Talkhabi,2,*Rouhollah Fathi,3
1. Department of Animal Sciences and Marine Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran 2. Department of Animal Sciences and Marine Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran 3. 2Department of Embryology, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Tehran, Iran
Introduction: Infertility, as a problem with different causes, forces millions of people to take clinical proceedings to solve this problem every year. Researchers are always looking for new ways to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical infertility treatments.
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is a complex series of procedures used to help with fertility or prevent genetic problems to have a offspring. During IVF, after stimulating ovulation with the use of drugs, the oocytes are collected and fertilized in vitro,with sperm.
It should be noted that in vitro culture, although it tries to be suitable and similar to in-vivo, but due to the lack of signaling and molecular pathways in the body and the inevitable difference in physicochemical conditions, destructive effects on the embryos.
To solve the existing problems, researchers have used various compounds as supplements in the process of embryo growth and development invitro.
To this end, researchers have found useful results in finding ways to make in-vitro conditions more similar to the in-vivo . Adding different supplements to culture media to improve the conditions of fertilization can be considered in line with these efforts.
In this article, we review the published research with the approach of examining the effects of different supplements on IVF and embryo culture.
Methods: In this article, we provides an overview recent studies in improving the quality of embryos grown in enriched culture media with various supplements.
We fouced on the effect amino acids ,Cytokines, hormones in embryo culture media and sperm capacitation media. The quality of embryos in experimental groups at different stages of development including two cells, cleavage and blastocyst was examined.
The present review article is the result of a review of 58 studies from 2017 to 2020 in this field and among English language articles.
Results: This study showed that the use of supplements, which are generally present invivo situation, in the laboratory, can help increase the rate of embryo formation, blastocyst formation, and ultimately increase live birth.
the addition of the arginine to the sperm capacitation medium was effective in improving sperm capacitation by increasing NO production. The addition of interleukin 6, as a single embryo-secreted factor, to the culture medium in vitro, helps to increase embryo growth. The use of 4-Hydroxy estrogen (4-OH-E ,a steroid production) along with EGF and PRL (prolactin) helps to increase the blastocyst implantation rate. In addition, the use of melatonin as a hormone helps to break down cell blocks in the embryo.
Conclusion: Our review study showed the addition of effective compounds that are also present in-vivo situation, such as amino acids (arginine), cytokines (interleukin 6), hormones (melatonin) and steroids( 4-Hydroxy estrogen)
to the culture medium in vitro can improve embryo quality and ultimately increase fertility in infertile cases.