Purpose: Oxygen consumption rates of human embryos derived from in vitro matured (IVM) oocytes and controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) were compared with scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) non-invasively in order to answer why embryos from IVM oocytes have lower developmental potential. We also analyzed the epigenetic disorders for IVM babies born in our clinic.
Methods: The oxygen consumption rate was calculated with the SECM system for different maturation stages of human oocytes, IVM and COH embryos. Blood from umbilical cords of IVM babies was collected to examine the imprinting genes.
Results: There were no significant differences in oxygen consumption of embryos at each cleavage stage between IVM and COH (range 0.26-0.56 × 10(14)/mol S(-1)). There also was no abnormality found in expression of imprinting genes in IVM babies.
Conclusions: There are no differences in terms of oxygen consumption between embryos derived from IVM and COH. There was no imprinting gene disorder founded from IVM babies.