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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on April 28, 2005
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/deh809
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© The Author 2005
Received November 27, 2004
Revised January 21, 2005
Accepted January 25, 2005

Article

An improved mechanical technique for assisted hatching

Q.F. Lyu 1 3, L.Q. Wu 1, Y.P. Li 2, Q. Pan 1, D.E. Liu 2, K. Xia 3, D.S. Liang 3, F. Cai 3, Z.G. Long 3, H.P. Dai 3, and J.H. Xia 4*

1 National Laboratory of Medical Genetics of China and 2Reproductive Medical Center of Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410078, People's Republic of China
2 Reproductive Medical Center of Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410078, People's Republic of China
3 National Laboratory of Medical Genetics of China and
4 National Laboratory of Medical Genetics of China and 2Reproductive Medical Center of Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410078, People's Republic of China

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
J.H. Xia, E-mail: nlmglcy{at}xysm.net


  Abstract

BACKGROUND: Varied clinical outcomes of assisted hatching (AH) have been reported. We attempt to investigate whether the size of the zona opening created by AH is adequate for blastocyst hatching, and, if not, set up a new method to improve it. METHODS: A new AH technique, long zona dissection (LZD), was established, and experiments were performed to compare the effects of different sizes of zona opening on complete hatching of blastocysts in mouse and human embryos in vitro. RESULTS: The LZD technique can create a long zona slit on early embryos, even blastocysts, with the slit size beyond two-thirds of zona diameter. Compared with three-dimensional partial zona dissection, LZD can significantly enhance the hatching speed and the rate of complete hatching of mouse blastocysts (93.9%). All (100%) human blastocysts completely hatched following LZD; however, when the slit size after AH was about two-fifths of zona diameter, more of the larger inner cell masses (ICM) became trapped by the zona opening during hatching than the smaller ICM (53.3 versus 12.5%, P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Zona opening of moderate size following AH is inadequate for the completion of blastocyst hatching in vitro; in some cases, however, it can be significantly improved by LZD.

Keywords: assisted hatching; blastocyst; inner cell mass; safety; zona pellucida.

3Present address: School of Life Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People's Republic of China


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