Human Reproduction, Vol. 14, No. 2, 465-469,
February 1999
© 1999 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Effect of oxygen concentration on human in-vitro fertilization and embryo culture*
1 Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and 2 Department of Molecular Cell Biology & Genetics, Academic Hospital, University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands
In this prospective randomized study on 1380 consecutive in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, the results were compared of culture of human oocytes and embryos for the first 2 or 3 days of development in microdroplets of medium under oil using a gas phase containing either atmospheric (~20%) or reduced (5%) O2 concentrations. No significant differences were found between the two groups cultured under either 5% or 20% O2 in rates of fertilization (60 versus 61%, respectively), embryo development at day 2 or 3, pregnancy (26.6 versus 25.4%, respectively), and implantation (13.4 versus 14.0%, respectively). Culture of surplus embryos under 5% O2 resulted in a significantly higher mean incidence of blastocyst formation per cycle as compared to the 20% O2 group (25.8 ± 2.0 versus 20.4 ± 1.9, respectively). The mean number of cells of embryos classified as blastocysts by microscopic observation of a blastocoel was significantly higher in the 5% O2 group as compared to the 20% O2 group, both in blastocysts fixed on day 5 (39.8 ± 1.7 versus 31.9 ± 1.9, respectively), as well as those fixed on day 6 (45.6 ± 2.6 versus 33.7 ± 3.4, respectively). This difference was due to the fact that significantly more blastocysts of the 20% O2 group had an abnormal low cell number of < 25 as compared to the 5% O2 group, both in blastocysts fixed on day 5 (39 versus 22%, respectively), as well as those fixed on day 6 (43 versus 22%, respectively). To conclude, although culture under 5% O2 leads to slightly improved preimplantation embryonic viability, this effect is either too marginal to result in higher pregnancy rates, or low O2 concentrations exert an effect during the later stages of preimplantation development only.
Key words: embryo culture/oxygen/preimplantation development
*Data presented in part at the 14th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE),Göteborg, Sweden, June 21–24, 1998.
3 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: IVF Laboratory, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Academic Hospital Maastricht, P.O. Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht, The Netherlands
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