Embryo metabolism was connected to viability, implying that it could be helpful to in ART to aid in the selection of high-quality embryos. However, due to a lack of non-invasive technologies for measuring the metabolic condition of human embryos, their metabolism remained poorly described. Therefore, a prospective observational study was carried out. Researchers used 215 morphologically normal human embryos from 137 patients that were destroyed and given for research under the supervision of an institutional review board. The autofluorescence of 2 important coenzymes, nicotinamide adenine (phosphate) dinucleotide (NAD(P)H) and flavine adenine dinucleotide (FAD+), which were crucial for cellular respiration and glycolysis, was measured in these embryos employing metabolic imaging via FLIM. The metabolic status of human blastocysts was measured using non-invasive FLIM. Investigators looked at geographical patterns in metabolic state inside human blastocysts, as well as the relationship between metabolic state and stage of expansion, day of development since fertilization, and shape. They tested the technique’s sensitivity in detecting metabolic differences across blastocysts from the same patient and different patients. Then, using time-lapse imaging, they looked at whether FLIM could quantify metabolic changes during human blastocyst enlargement and hatching. After utilizing Benjamini–false Hochberg’s discovery rate to account for multiple comparisons, the significance level was established at P<0.05 for all test conditions. According to the outcomes, FLIM was sensitive enough to detect significant metabolic variations between blastocysts. The time since fertilization and their developmental expansion stage (P<0.05) largely explain metabolic differences between blastocysts, but not their morphological grade. Even after adjusting for these variables, significant metabolic differences between blastocysts from the same patients persist. Study group also found substantial metabolic heterogeneity within individual blastocysts, such as between the inner cell mass and the trophectoderm and between hatching blastocysts with and without the zona pellucida (P<0.05). Finally, they discovered that the metabolic status of human blastocysts changes throughout time. The outcomes show that FLIM could provide biologically relevant information that could be useful in determining embryo quality.
Source:academic.oup.com/humrep/article-abstract/37/3/411/6499140?redirectedFrom=fulltext
