Reproductive Medicine Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, China.
Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, CAS Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
Cell Rep. 2024 Nov 26;43(11):114888. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114888. Epub 2024 Nov 1.
Poor-quality (PQ) embryos are commonly formed in assisted reproduction and often discarded, but emerging evidence suggests that some can develop into healthy children. Here, we performed single-embryo transcriptome profiling of day 3 human embryos of both good quality (GQ) and PQ. Our analyses revealed that day 3 PQ embryos can be categorized into two distinct subgroups: genuine PQ (gPQ) and morphological PQ (mPQ) embryos. This was further supported by additional transcriptomic data of GQ and PQ embryos donated by the same individuals. gPQ embryos showed greater impairments in both RNA decay and zygotic genome activation (ZGA) compared to mPQ embryos. Blastocysts that emerged from PQ embryos, more likely from mPQ embryos, demonstrated transcriptomic similarity to normal blastocysts. We also identified genes highly upregulated in day 3 gPQ embryos. These molecular insights may improve embryo selection and offer valuable clues for enhancing embryo quality in the future.
在辅助生殖中，通常会形成质量较差（PQ）的胚胎，并且这些胚胎经常被丢弃，但新出现的证据表明，其中一些胚胎可以发育成健康的儿童。在这里，我们对第 3 天的优质（GQ）和 PQ 人类胚胎进行了单个胚胎转录组谱分析。我们的分析表明，第 3 天的 PQ 胚胎可以分为两个不同的亚组：真正的 PQ（gPQ）和形态学 PQ（mPQ）胚胎。这一点通过来自同一供体的 GQ 和 PQ 胚胎的额外转录组数据进一步得到了支持。与 mPQ 胚胎相比，gPQ 胚胎的 RNA 降解和合子基因组激活（ZGA）受损更大。从 PQ 胚胎中出现的囊胚，更可能是 mPQ 胚胎，其转录组与正常囊胚相似。我们还鉴定了在第 3 天 gPQ 胚胎中高度上调的基因。这些分子见解可以改善胚胎选择，并为未来提高胚胎质量提供有价值的线索。
