Background: The expression of miR-302 over the period of early embryogenesis could possibly regulate the maternal transcript clearance. Zygotic transcription activation is mostly related to maternal messages degradation.
Objective: In this study, the effects of in-vitro maturation technique (IVM) on the expression of miR-302 in human embryo produced from immature and mature human oocytes (matured in vitro and in vivo, before sperm exposure) obtained from females under gonadotrophin therapy were evaluated for assisted reproduction.
Materials and methods: Immature oocytes were cultured in vitro. The injection of oocytes-producing polar bodies was given using fresh sperm. Then, the embryo quality score was assessed in the IVM group compared with the control group. In both the groups, embryos with normal morphology were included in the molecular study. Only one blastomere was removed from three-day embryos and then the embryos were frozen. The expression of miR-302 in embryos was measured through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.
Results: Our data showed a significant reduction of miR-302 expression in the IVM group vs. the control group (p = 0.02). The embryo quality score showed a significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.01).
Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that the IVM process had a negative effect on the expression level of miR-302 in human pre-implantation embryos. Considering the major role of expression miR-302, a reduced potential in miR-302 expression could be related to a decrease in the early embryonic development.
Keywords: Embryonic development; In-vitro maturation; Intracytoplasmic sperm injection.; Ovarian stimulation; miR-302.