Human Reproduction, Vol 12, 785-791, Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press
AJ Ammit and C O'Neill
Embryos produced by in-vitro fertilization (IVF) may produce less
platelet-activating factor (PAF) than is optimal for development. It was
previously shown that supplementation of culture media with PAF results in
a significant increase in pregnancy rate. Human embryos are often cultured
in media supplemented with serum containing the enzyme PAF:acetylhydrolase
(PAF:AH; EC 3.1.1.47), which hydrolyses PAF to its inactive form, lyso-PAF.
Thus, effective supplementation of media with PAF requires inactivation of
this enzyme. In this study we examine the efficacy of the methods of PAF:AH
deactivation used for PAF supplementation of IVF culture medium. When the
effectiveness of a commonly used acid treatment protocol (pH 3.0 at room
temperature for 5 min) was examined, it was found that it was not
completely effective for the majority of sera. When synthetic PAF was added
to 18 serum samples which had been acid treated, five had 90-100% of the
original PAF remaining after 24 h (showing that the acid treatment was
effective), eight had from 10-90% of the original PAF remaining after 24 h,
and five samples had 0-10%. The extent to which PAF:AH was susceptible to
deactivation was not associated with the activity in the serum prior to
treatment, the serum oestradiol concentration, or the cause of infertility.
The period of acidification and the incubation temperature were assessed to
develop a new acid-treatment protocol (20 min acid treatment at 37 degrees
C) which was able to deactivate PAF:AH effectively in all sera (53/53)
examined. A trial was performed to assess the effect of acid treatment of
serum for 5 min at room temperature compared with the new protocol (20 min
at 37 degrees C) on IVF outcome, following PAF supplementation of IVF
culture medium. Oocyte recovery, fertilization and embryo development rates
were equivalent for both groups and approximately equal numbers of embryos
were transferred or cryopreserved. Pregnancy rates were not significantly
different (14.6 versus 20.0%) for the two treatments, with a trend towards
a higher pregnancy rate with the new acid- treatment protocol. The results
show that this new procedure for acid treatment of serum in combination
with PAF supplementation does not have detrimental effects on embryos and
their pregnancy outcome and is therefore suitable for use in IVF.
ARTICLES
Optimization of a method for deactivation of platelet-activating factor:acetylhydrolase in serum for use in in-vitro fertilization culture media
Department of Physiology, University of Sydney, Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney, St. Leonards, NSW, Australia.
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