OBJECTIVES In the past several scoring systems were proposed for early human development aiming to assist in the identification of the best embryos. Scoring criteria are usually assessed at static developmental time points by microscopy. For almost every scoring system controversial results on its benefit can be found in the literature. With the introduction of time-lapse imaging static assessm...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and Piezo-assisted sperm injection after pretreatment with calcium ionophore (CaI) on the mouse embryo development. Methods: In this study, the conventional ICSI and Piezo-ICSI procedures were used. The efficacy of the methods was examined after mouse matured oocytes were fertilized with or witho...

Background. Patients with poor ovarian response to ovarian hyperstimulation represent an interesting group for studying the impact of embryo cleavage irregularities on clinical outcome since all embryos, regardless of their quality, are usually transferred to the uterus. The aim of our study was to follow the morphokinetics of fertilized oocytes from natural cycles in poor responders. Methods. ...

BACKGROUND The impact of controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) on oocyte and subsequent embryo quality remains controversial. In the present study we have compared embryo quality in natural and stimulated cycles in the same group of patients. METHODS This retrospective study was comprised of patients with a regular menstrual cycle who had IVF after COS using rFSH in a long GnRH agonist protoco...

UNLABELLED OBJECTIVES This study sought to evaluate the outcome of fresh and vitrified-warmed cleavage-stage and blastocyst-stage embryo transfers in patients undergoing ART treatment within an ethnic Chinese population. STUDY DESIGN We compared the clinical results of embryo transfer on the 3rd (cleavage stage) or 5th (blastocyst stage) day after oocyte retrieval, including clinical pregn...

BACKGROUND The LC Polscope facilitates visualization of the meiotic spindle in human oocyte. This study aimed to investigate meiotic spindle assembly in correlation to time elapsed after HCG administration, and to determine whether spindle imaging may serve to indicate the likelihood of fertilization and embryo cleavage. METHODS Metaphase II (MII) oocytes from 103 couples who were being treat...

BACKGROUND Embryo culture media used for IVF treatment might affect fetal growth and thus birthweight of the newborns. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted in South China using data from 2370 singleton neonates born after IVF/ICSI between 2009 and 2012. Two culture media, i.e., either Vitrolife or SAGE were used as embryo culture media during the study period. Neonates' birthweights we...

Background: Decreasing the growth and developmental rate of embryo and arresting in certain step of development like two cell block could be the reason of infertility in some couples referring to fertility and infertility center. The aim of this study is the effect of strontium on growth and development of two-cell arrested NMRI mouse embryo. Materials and Methods: The female mice were coupled ...

The aim of the study was to compare the parthenogenetic activation and in vitro fertilization (IVF) of in vitro matured caprine oocytes. A total of 881 cumulus-oocyte complexes (COC’s) were collected from 243 ovaries. Oocytes were matured in TCM-199 medium containing eCG (20 IU/ml), hCG (20 IUμg/ml), oestradiol-17β (1 μg/ml), BSA embryo tested (3 mg/ml) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum ...