Application of conventional IVF during preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies: a feasibility study

Abstract

Research question: Is it feasible to apply conventional IVF to couples undergoing preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT-A) with non-severe male infertility?

Design: The last wash fluid of biopsied trophectoderm (TE) cells was collected for whole genome amplification (WGA). A method was developed to determine parental contamination. Using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis, two standard curves were established; further mixtures were used for verification. Finally, 29 WGA products from couples undergoing conventional IVF were used to evaluate parental contamination.

Results: The WGA results of the last wash fluid of biopsied TE cells revealed almost no free DNA. By adopting two strategies based on maternally and paternally biased SNP in the mixture, data from bioinformatics analysis were analysed to determine the relationship between maternal (Index M) and paternal (Index F) bias statistics. Two standard curves were successfully established based on these indices that allowed the prediction of maternal and parental contamination, which correlated well with actual ratios of known composition mixtures during validation. The average contamination level was 10.6% determined from 10 WGA products that featured maternal contamination, whereas that of the other 19 products that featured paternal contamination was less than 10%.

Conclusions: This study confirmed the feasibility of applying conventional IVF to couples undergoing PGT-A with non-severe male infertility.

Keywords: IVF; Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Trophectoderm cell; Whole genome amplification.