Air pollution exposure in vitrified oocyte donors and male recipient partners in relation to fertilization and embryo quality.

Background: Studies on air pollution and outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF) have focused on couples undergoing autologous IVF, in which it is challenging to disentangle maternal and paternal exposures during gametogenesis. We sought to evaluate the independent associations between air pollution exposure during oogenesis and spermatogenesis on fertilization and embryo quality in non-identified donor oocyte IVF cycles.

Methods: Our study included 500 oocyte donors and 915 male recipient partners who contributed 1,095 oocyte thaw cycles (2008-2019).

Neighborhood deprivation in relation to ovarian reserve and outcomes of ovarian stimulation among oocyte donors.

Objective: To study the relationship between neighborhood deprivation index (NDI) and markers of ovarian reserve and outcomes of controlled ovarian stimulation among young, healthy oocyte donors.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Patients: A total of 547 oocyte donors who underwent 905 oocyte retrieval cycles (2008-2020) at a private fertility center in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States.

Ambient traffic related air pollution in relation to ovarian reserve and oocyte quality in young, healthy oocyte donors.

Studies in mice and older, subfertile women have found that air pollution exposure may compromise female reproduction. Our objective was to evaluate the effects of air pollution on ovarian reserve and outcomes of ovarian stimulation among young, healthy females. We included 472 oocyte donors who underwent 781 ovarian stimulation cycles at a fertility clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, USA (2008-2019).

The effects of vitrification on oocyte quality.

Vitrification, is an ultra-rapid, manual cooling process that produces glass-like (ice crystal-free) solidification. Water is prevented from forming intercellular and intracellular ice crystals during cooling as a result of oocyte dehydration and the use of highly concentrated cryoprotectant. Though oocytes can be cryopreserved without ice crystal formation through vitrification, it is still not clear whether the process of vitrification causes any negative impact (temperature change/chilling effect, osmotic stress, cryoprotectant toxicity, and/or phase transitions) on oocyte quality, which translates to diminished embryo developmental potential or subsequent clinical outcomes.

The effects of oocyte donor and recipient body mass index on live birth rates and pregnancy outcomes following assisted reproduction.

Objective: To investigate the effects of oocyte donor and recipient body mass index (BMI) on outcomes of vitrified donor oocyte assisted reproductive technology (ART).

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Private fertility center.

When using donor oocytes, does embryo stage matter? An analysis of blastocyst versus cleavage stage embryo transfers using a cryopreserved donor oocyte bank.

Purpose: Oocyte donor in vitro fertilization (IVF) represents an ideal model to study the effects of embryo stage on reproductive success, as embryos come from young women with high-quality oocytes. Our study aimed to determine if embryo transfer stage affected outcomes in oocyte donor IVF, including the common scenario where only a limited number of quality embryos are available after culture.

Methods: This retrospective cohort analyzed anonymous vitrified donor oocyte cycles at a single clinic between 2008 and 2015.

The effect of donor and recipient race on outcomes of assisted reproduction.

Background: A growing literature suggests that minority races, particularly Black women, have a lower probability of live birth and higher risk of perinatal complications after autologous assisted reproductive technology. However, questions still remain as to whether these racial disparities have arisen because of associations between race and oocyte/embryo quality, the uterine environment, or a combination of the two. Oocyte donation assisted reproductive technology represents a unique approach to examine this question.

Payment to egg donors is the best way to ensure supply meets demand.

Compensated egg donation has been available in the USA since 1984 and is subject to a variety of regulations. The impact of variation from state to state on the regulation of egg donor compensation can be discerned from an analysis of data reporting to both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART). Although the CDC data sets are considered as the most complete, they did not, and do not, separately account for cycles conducted with frozen donor eggs, though SART data beginning in 2013 do account for these cycles.

Impact of male partner characteristics and semen parameters on in vitro fertilization and obstetric outcomes in a frozen oocyte donor model.

Objective: To examine the degree to which paternal variables of age, body mass index (BMI), and sperm parameters affect vitrified donor oocyte IVF outcomes. Previous studies examining the impact of male partner characteristics on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) have found conflicting results. Concerns are rising over the potential effects of paternal factors, such as age and obesity, on pregnancy and child health.

Progesterone replacement with vaginal gel versus i.m. injection: cycle and pregnancy outcomes in IVF patients receiving vitrified blastocysts.

Study Question: Does the type of luteal support affect pregnancy outcomes in recipients of vitrified blastocysts?

Summary Answer: Luteal support with vaginal progesterone gel or i.m. progesterone (IMP) results in comparable implantation and pregnancy rates in IVF patients receiving vitrified blastocysts.

Cryopreservation of eggs.

Oocyte cryopreservation is playing an increasingly important role in the field of human infertility treatment. The ability to store viable oocytes for later use has given many women the option to delay childbearing in order to pursue other ventures in life, without the concern of losing the opportunity to have a family. Furthermore, oocyte cryopreservation is very valuable for diseased patients who have to undergo treatments that may compromise fertility.

Prospective controlled study to evaluate laboratory and clinical outcomes of oocyte vitrification obtained in in vitro fertilization patients aged 30 to 39 years.

Objective: To determine whether the process of oocyte vitrification affects oocyte viability in in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients between 30 and 39 years of age.

Design: Prospective controlled study.

Setting: Private IVF practice.

Tackling burden in ART: an integrated approach for medical staff.

Discontinuation is a problem in fertility clinics. Many couples discontinue assisted reproductive technologies (ART) without achieving a live birth for reasons other than poor prognosis or the cost of treatment. Discontinuation has been attributed to the burden of treatment.

No association between endogenous LH and pregnancy in a GnRH antagonist protocol: part II, recombinant FSH.

The association between endogenous LH concentrations during ovarian stimulation in a gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist protocol and pregnancy likelihood was examined in a large combined analysis of individualized patient data obtained after treatment with recombinant FSH and a GnRH antagonist prior to IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Data from 1764 patients from six randomized controlled trials were pooled for retrospective analysis. Ongoing pregnancy and miscarriage rates for patients stratified by LH percentiles were assessed.

Luteinizing hormone add-back: is it needed in controlled ovarian stimulation, and if so, when?

Objective: To present an evidence-based rationale for or against the use of supplemental luteinizing hormone (LH) versus follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) alone in various controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) protocols and specific patient populations. Any evidence for or against an association between endogenous LH levels and the likelihood of pregnancy in in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures will also be presented.

Study Design: Literature review and critical analysis of evidence drawn from systematic reviews and metaanalyses published in the last 3 years and from data subsequently reported (through mid-2009) by well-controlled randomized trials.

The efficacy and safety of human oocyte vitrification.

Vitrification is now a widely applied and highly successful approach for cryopreservation in reproductive biology. Rapidly increasing data prove that it is also a highly efficient technique for low-temperature storage of human oocytes. The latest approaches with appropriately selected cryoprotectants, tools and techniques, and properly adjusted parameters allow close to 100% morphological survival rates, and in vitro embryo development, as well pregnancy and implantation rates, comparable with those achieved with fresh oocytes.

Human oocyte vitrification: in-vivo and in-vitro maturation outcomes.

This study aimed to evaluate oocyte vitrification efficiency using in-vivo matured (IVO) versus rescued in-vitro matured (IVM) oocytes. The results show that oocyte survival (85% versus 81%), fertilization (86% versus 76%) and cleavage rate (98% versus 89%) was not significantly different in IVO oocytes compared with rescued IVM sibling oocytes. The fertilized oocytes from IVO and IVM groups were cultured to blastocyst stage; however, embryo development was significantly reduced in the rescued IVM group (72% versus 15%).

Clinical evaluation of the efficiency of an oocyte donation program using egg cryo-banking.

Objective: To evaluate the efficiency of oocyte donation cycles using egg "cryo-banking."

Design: Study conditions for vitrified/warmed oocytes for 20 non-autologous recipients (from 10 donors) were set prospectively, and outcomes of it were later compared retrospectively to nine fresh donations cycles.

Setting: Private assisted reproductive technology program.

Two successful pregnancies obtained following oocyte vitrification and embryo re-vitrification.

Recent clinical reports not only show that cryopreserved embryos can be successfully used for human fertility treatment, but also that cryopreserved oocytes may be used successfully as an adjunct to human assisted reproductive technologies. Vitrification is known to establish a glass-like solid state during the cooling process. The high concentration of cryoprotectants and an extremely rapid rate of cooling are responsible for the formation of the solid state, and also prevent formation of intracellular ice crystals.

Influence of the preimplantation embryo development (Ped) gene on embryonic platelet-activating factor (PAF) levels.

Purpose: A major gene responsible for the control of preimplantation cleavage rate is the Ped gene, the product of which is the Qa-2 protein. Fast, but not slow developing mouse embryos express the Qa-2 protein. Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is a novel and potent signaling phospholipid that has unique pleiotropic properties in addition to platelet activation.

Removal of lysed blastomeres from frozen-thawed embryos improves implantation and pregnancy rates in frozen embryo transfer cycles.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of degenerated (lysed) blastomere removal on implantation and pregnancy rates in cleavage-stage cryo-embryo transfer (ET) cycles.

Design: Randomized clinical trial.

Setting: Private reproductive medical center.

Impact of body mass index values on sperm quantity and quality.

Body mass index (BMI) has been demonstrated to affect female fertility; however, little information is available on the impact of BMI on male fertility or semen parameters. Therefore, the study objective was to determine the relationship between BMI and semen parameters, including sperm chromatin integrity. We analyzed data on semen samples from 520 men who were grouped based upon calculated BMI values (normal, 20-24 kg/m(2); overweight, 25-30 kg/m(2); obese, >30 kg/m(2)).

Ganirelix acetate use in normal- and poor-prognosis patients and the impact of estradiol patterns.

Objective: To evaluate cycle outcomes in patients with either poor or normal prognosis undergoing IVF treatment with a GnRH antagonist (ganirelix acetate) for LH suppression.

Design: Nonrandomized, noncontrolled, retrospective review.

Patient(s): 204 patients, aged 23-41 years, undergoing IVF.

The significance of platelet-activating factor and fertility in the male primate: a review.

Since its discovery nearly 30 years ago platelet-activating factor (PAF) has emerged as one of the more important lipid mediators known. PAF (1-O-alkyl-2-O-acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphorylcholine) exists endogenously as a mixture of molecular species with structural variants of the alkyl moiety. PAF is a novel potent signaling phospholipid that has unique pleiotropic biological properties in addition to platelet activation.

Exposure of preimplantation embryos to platelet-activating factor increases birth rate.

Problem: Platelet-activating factor (PAF) plays a significant role in fertility. Preimplantation stage embryos produce PAF (ePAF) which is required for development. PAF's mechanism of action is receptor-mediated and its presence has been reported in the developing mouse and human embryo.