Investigating the Morphological Changes and Expression Level of Cytoplasmic Maturation Genes of Immature Oocytes after 24-hour In-Vitro Culture in Infertile Women: A Randomized Control Study

According to previous reports, treatment of infertile women who are candidates for in vitro fertilization (IVF), about 15% of the oocytes remains immature. Therefore, finding an efficient approach to make these types of oocytes usable in the clinic, especially in women with limited oocytes, is necessary. One of these approaches is the laboratory culture of immature oocytes in such a way that the expression of genes involved in cytoplasmic maturation increases.

Forty-eight infertile women candidates for IVF donated their immature oocytes at the time of oocyte retrieval. The obtained immature oocytes were randomly divided into two groups: the control group without in-Vitro culture and the intervention group in the form of 24-hour culture. The total oocytes of both groups (ninety-five immature oocytes) were pooled separately and analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR).

The level of expression of MT-ATP6 and BMP15 genes in the intervention group has a significant increase compared to the control group, with a fold change of 7.867± 3.12 and 6.327 ± 0.78, respectively (P<0.001). Furthermore, according to the morphological changes, 54% of the immature oocytes in the intervention group had resumed meiosis.

Increasing the expression of two cytoplasmic maturation genes, MT-ATP6 and BMP15 can cause the resumption of meiosis in immature oocytes. Therefore, this strategy can be promising in women with low eggs.