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Evaluation of extracellular vesicles and gDNA from culture medium as a possible indicator of developmental competence in human embryos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2020

Daniel Veraguas Open the ORCID record for Daniel Veraguas [Opens in a new window] ,
Constanza Aguilera ,
Carlos Henriquez ,
Alejandra E. Velasquez Open the ORCID record for Alejandra E. Velasquez [Opens in a new window] ,
Barbara Melo-Baez ,
Pedro Silva-Ibañez ,
Fidel O. Castro  and
Lleretny Rodriguez-Alvarez
Daniel Veraguas
Affiliation:
Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
Constanza Aguilera
Affiliation:
Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
Carlos Henriquez
Affiliation:
Centro de Reproducción Asistida y Especialidades de la Mujer (CRAM), Concepción, Chile
Alejandra E. Velasquez
Affiliation:
Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile Centro de Reproducción Asistida y Especialidades de la Mujer (CRAM), Concepción, Chile
Barbara Melo-Baez
Affiliation:
Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
Pedro Silva-Ibañez
Affiliation:
Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
Fidel O. Castro
Affiliation:
Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
Lleretny Rodriguez-Alvarez*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
*
Author for correspondence: Lleretny Rodriguez-Alvarez. Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile. E-mail: llrodriguez@udec.cl
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Summary

Human embryos generated in vitro have a high incidence of chromosomal abnormalities that negatively affect pregnancy rate. Embryos generated in vitro secrete extracellular vesicles (EVs) into the culture medium that could be used potentially as indicators of embryo competence. This research aimed to evaluate the concentration and size of EVs and their gDNA content as an indicator of developmental competence in human embryos. Human embryos generated by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were classified morphologically as of either TOP, FAIR or POOR quality. Culture medium and developmentally arrested embryos (which were not able to be used for embryo transfer) were collected. Microvesicles, exosomes (MV/Exo) and apoptotic bodies (ABs) were isolated from culture medium. Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) analysis were performed to evaluate EVs and their gDNA content. From NTA, the diameter (mean) of MVs/Exo from TOP quality embryos was higher (112.17 nm) compared with that of FAIR (108.02) and POOR quality embryos (102.78 nm) (P < 0.05). aCGH analysis indicated that MVs/Exo and ABs carried gDNA with the presence of 23 chromosome pairs. However, when arrested embryos were compared with their respective MVs/Exo and ABs, the latter had an increased rate of chromosomal abnormalities (24.9%) compared with embryos (8.7%) (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the size of EVs from culture medium might be an alternative for evaluating competence of human embryos, however more studies are needed to validate the use of gDNA from EVs as an indicator of embryo competence.

Keywords

Chromosome abnormalitiesEmbryo qualityExosomesMicrovesiclesPreimplantation diagnosis
Type
Research Article
Information
Zygote , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 138 - 149
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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