Evaluation of Group Culture in WOW Dishes of Human Embryos in Order to Optimize the Single Embryo Transfer (SET) Strategy.

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Fertility
• Interventions: Other: control group; Device: Primo Vision embryo culture dish (CE labeled, Vitrolife)

• Registration Number: NCT02010424
• Lead Sponsor: University Hospital, Ghent

Brief Summary

In cattle less than 10% of the embryos develop to the blastocyst stage when embryos are cultured individually, however when bovine embryos are cultured in groups a typical 25-35% of blastocysts can be observed. This tendency, i.e. improved embryo development in group culture, has also been demonstrated in other mammalian species, such as mouse, cat and human. The main reason for this beneficial outcome of group culture has been ascribed to the presence of autocrine factors, which are factors secreted by preimplantation embryos that act upon the embryo itself or the neighboring embryos .

Although group culture systems are common in in vitro production systems for animal embryos, it is rarely done in human settings, where individual follow-up of the embryo during the whole culture period is of utmost importance. Recently a CE-labelled culture device has been designed for human embryos, that allow to combine the benefits of both group culture approaches and individual culture. The WOW dish is commercially available by Primo Vision and consists of 9 small microwells on the bottom of the plate, so that the embryos can be cultivated individually in a microwell, but covered by the same drop of culture medium.

In this clinical randomized trial, 158 patients will be included of which half of the fertilized oocytes will be cultured individually (standard culture system) and half of the fertilized oocytes will be cultured in group in a WOW dish, both during five days of culture. The aim of this study is to increase the number of blastocysts suitable for transfer or cryopreservation by culturing the embryos in WOW dishes.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2013-12-09
• Study First Submitted QC: 2013-12-09
• Study First Posted: 2013-12-12
• Study Start: 2014-01
• Primary Completion: 2015-12
• Study Completion: 2015-12
• Status Verified: 2022-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-11-29
• Last Update Posted: 2022-12-02

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 158

Inclusion Criteria

• Sperm obtained by ejaculation
• Conventional IVF/ICSI
• At least 10 fertilized oocytes (2 PN)

Exclusion Criteria

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Individual culture	control group	standard IVF protocol: half of the fertilized oocytes of the patient will be cultured individually in drops of 25 µl Cook cleavage medium till day 3 after fertilization and subsequently in drops of 25 µl Cook blastocyst medium till day 5 after fertilization
WOW	Primo Vision embryo culture dish (CE labeled, Vitrolife)	Half of the fertilized oocytes of the patient will be cultured in group in a WOW dish, each in a separate microwell but covered with one drop of 30 µl of Cook cleavage medium till day 3 after fertilization and subsequently all the embryos will be transferred to a new WOW dish (in the exactly the same position) covered with 30 µl of Cook blastocyst medium till day 5 after fertilization

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Blastocyst utilisation rate	5 days after fertilization	number of blastocysts out of fertilized oocytes observed 5 days after fertilization that can be used for the patient (fresh transfer or cryopreservation)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Morphologic evaluation	5 days after fertilization	Morphologic evaluation according to the Gardner score (Gardner and Schoolcraft, 1999)
change in embryo development	at day 2, 3 and 4 after fertilization	morphologic evaluation at day 2, 3 and 4 after fertilization
life birth rate	9 months after embryo transfer	birth of a baby nine months after embryo transfer
change in secretome	day 3 and day 5 after fertilization	embryo conditioned medium will we collected at day 3 and day 5 after fertilization in eppendorf tubes and kept in -80°C until all samples are collected and they will be analyzed with mass spectrometry to compare the secretome (secreted proteins by the preimplantation embryo).
pregnancy rate	day 15 and week 5 after embryo transfer	endocrine pregnancy by measuring hCG in blood sample on day 15 after embryo transfer and clinical pregnancy confirmed by ultrasound, 5 weeks after embryo transfer.

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

Antwerp University Hospital, Centre for Reproductive Medicine; 🇧🇪 Edegem, Belgium

Ghent University Hospital; 🇧🇪 Ghent, Belgium