Oocyte euploidy, pronuclear zygote morphology and embryo chromosomal complement

Abstract

Background: Pronuclear morphology has been proposed as an indicator of embryo development and chromosomal complement. In this study, the morphology of pronuclear zygotes generated from euploid oocytes [diagnosed by first polar body (PB1) analysis] was evaluated and compared with the configurations observed in chromosomally normal embryos (diagnosed by blastomere analysis). Materials and Methods: Group 1-238 patients underwent 273 assisted conception cycles in combination with the screening of aneuploidy on PB1 for the chromosomes 13, 15, 16, 18, 21 and 22. Only normal oocytes were inseminated. Group 2-218 patients underwent 318 assisted conception cycles with aneuploidy screening on day 3 embryos. In both groups, oocytes were checked for fertilization and pronuclear morphology at 16 h after insemination. Results: Seventy-three percent of zygotes from Group 1 had the configurations with centralized and juxtaposed pronuclei, large-size aligned or scattered nucleoli and PB located in the longitudinal or perpendicular axis of pronuclei. In Group 2, these configurations corresponded to those with the highest proportion of chromosomally normal embryos. Accordingly, in both groups, these configurations had a higher implantation rate than all the others. Conclusions: These observations confirm that some patterns of pronuclear morphology are associated with a higher proportion of euploidy and implantation reaffirming the relevance of this scoring system for the prediction of zygote viability. © 2007 Oxford University Press.