Embryo Selection by Metabolomic Profiling of Embryo Culture Medium With Mass Spectroscopy as an Adjunct to Morphology

Identification of the embryo with the highest potential to implant and establish an ongoing pregnancy is a primary aim in human assisted reproduction. This task is undertaken every day by embryologists worldwide during the treatment of couples that wish to conceive by IVF. The optimal scenario is the transfer of a single embryo which gives rise to a singleton pregnancy. The current limitations in determination of embryos that have the highest implantation potential probably contribute to the low rates of pregnancy during IVF treatments. Hence, since the beginning of IVF, how to improve embryo selection has been a 'hot research topic.' Morphology has been a very obvious parameter to assess embryos as it provides a chance to evaluate them from the oocyte stage all the way to the blastocysts stage. Hence, in the first era of IVF, there were number of studies that evaluated this parameter and associated morphology with IVF success rates. On the other hand, it has been previously stated that the slight increase in pregnancy rates during IVF treatment is mostly likely a result of better practices in laboratory than morphological evaluation. Due to the limitations of morphological evaluation, several researchers have investigated adjunctive non-invasive approaches for the assessment of the embryo, such as the metabolomic profiling. Recently mass spectroscopic (MS) approaches have been utilized in limited settings. Samples needed minimal preparation; analytical analysis was rapid and large amounts of data was available. Hence, MS might be a promising approach for metabolomic profiling of embryo culture media.