Changes in the levels of selected metabolitesin the culture medium as a possible toolfor the embryo selection in assisted reproduction

Czech version

Authors: P. Drábková ¹; L. Andrlová ¹; R. Hampl ²; R. Kanďár ¹
Authors‘ workplace: Univerzita Pardubice, Fakulta chemicko-technologická, Katedra biologických a biochemických věd, Pardubice, vedoucí katedry doc. RNDr. Z. Bílková, Ph. D. ¹; Centrum asistované reprodukce Sanus, Pardubice, vedoucí lékařka MUDr. Š. Novotná ²
Published in: Ceska Gynekol 2015; 80(2): 135-139

Overview

Despite the increasing success of infertility treatment methods of assisted reproduction, it still remains a problem how to select the best embryo that has the potential for further development and implantation. At the present time, embryo selection is based especially on morphological criteria. This approach is subjective; therefore there is a trend to find another more objective and robust method for embryo selection. Embryo metabolism can be used as an indicator of viability. This non-invasive method allows observing changes in the levels of different metabolites in culture medium before and after incubation of the only one embryo. The most mentioned substances are carbohydrates and amino acids as important components of culture medium. Carbohydrates serve predominantly as energy sources, whereas amino acids are precursors of protein and nucleotides, antioxidants, osmolytes, pH regulators etc. Several methods have been proposed for evaluating of embryo metabolic profile of embryo. There are many hypotheses for embryo selection according its metabolic profile.

Keywords:
amino acids, embryo metabolism, embryo selection in IVF, carbohydrates

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