Melatonin Improves Quality of Repeated-Poor and Frozen-Thawed Embryos in Human, a Prospective Clinical Trial.

OBJECTIVE

In this study, two experiments were performed to assess the effect and the role of melatonin on human embryo quality.

METHODS

Experiment I: A total of 42 repeated-poor-quality-embryo patients were enrolled, with a total of 181 oocytes retrieval cycles. After IVF, for the same patient, the MT cycles group (10 M melatonin added to the culture medium; n=48) were compared with the previous non-MT cycles group (n=133), following by culture to blastocyst stage and embryo transfer. 31 patients were transplanted with 65 embryo transfer, including 24 MT embryo transfer, 41 non-MT embryo transfer. Cycle outcomes were compared between the two groups. Experiment II:A total of 143 supernumerary human cleavage-stage embryos (from non-repeated-poor-quality-embryo patients) vitrified on Day 3 after IVF were warmed and randomized into two groups: melatonin group (10 M melatonin added to the culture medium; n=71) and control group (n=72), and then cultured for 72 h. Rate of blastocyst and high-quality blastocyst, reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels of culture media as well as embryonic , , , , , gene expression levels were analyzed.

RESULTS

Experiment I: Results showed that the rate of Day 3 high-quality embryos (29.6% 19.5%) in the MT cycles group was significantly higher than that in the non-MT cycles group (<0.05). The rate of available blastocysts (17.1% 12.7%) and clinical pregnancy rate (25.0% 17.1%) were in tendency higher in the group treated with melatonin (>0.05). Experiment II:Results showed that the blastocyst rates in the melatonin administered group were significantly higher than in control group (42.25% 26.38%, <0.05). There were no significant differences in high-quality blastocyst rates. In addition, quantitative PCR showed that the expression of was significantly upregulated by melatonin treatment (<0.05), while there were no significant differences in the expression of , , , and gene as well as the levels of ROS.

CONCLUSION

These data showed that melatonin supplement in the culture medium will improve Day 3 high-quality embryos rate of repeated-poor-quality-embryo patients and improve blastocyst rate of vitrified-warmed cleavage-stage embryos, suggesting that melatonin intervention may provide a potential rescue strategy for IVF failures.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

identifier [ChiCTR2200059773].