Evaluation of in vitro fertilization outcomes using interleukin-8 in culture medium of human preimplantation embryos.

Objective: To investigate whether selected cytokines are detectable in the embryo culture medium (EM) of human preimplantation embryos (HPE) and what the relationship is of the cytokines with clinical outcomes.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: University-affiliated tertiary teaching hospital.

Patient(s): Three-hundred and thirty infertile women who underwent fresh cycle in vitro fertilization (IVF) between January and December 2014.

Intervention(s): Collection on the day of transfer of the EM of each embryo that was transferred in all patients for measurement of cytokine levels.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Measurement of 13 selected cytokines in the EM of day-3 HPE to analyze the relationship of the cytokine with embryo quality and clinical outcome.

Result(s): Of the cytokines measured, only interleukin-8 (IL-8) was statistically significantly associated with clinical outcome. The rate of detectable IL-8 in the EM was 32.42%, and the pregnancy rate, implantation rate, and number of live births per in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection patient (N LBPP) were higher, and 0 IR was lower in patients for whom the medium from transferred embryos was positive for IL-8 (IL-8 positive group) compared with the patients for whom the medium tested negative for IL-8 (IL-8 negative group). Compared with the IL-8 negative group, a higher pregnancy rate was observed in the IL-8 positive group when the patients received equal good-ordinary quality embryos.

Conclusion(s): In the EM from HPE, IL-8 is associated with higher pregnancy rates, higher IRs, and higher N LBPP, so IL-8 may be an independent predictor for pretransfer assessment of the embryo development potential in IVF patients.