Objective: To determine whether altering selected components of sequential culture media can improve early development variables of human embryos.
Design: Prospective, randomized, sibling oocyte split trial.
Setting: Private ART center.
Patient(s): Two hundred eight undergoing treatment with in vitro fertilization or microinjection.
Intervention(s): Oocytes from each patient were randomly allocated to fertilization and cleavage media of a control and a trial culture medium formulation.
Main outcome measure(s): Rates of fertilization, cleavage, and uncontrolled division; average embryo morphology score; blastomeres per embryo; embryo score parameter (number of blastomeres x embryo morphology grade); and embryo utilization. The trial media resulted in a higher fertilization rate, higher cleavage rate, lower rate of uncontrolled division, higher number of blastomeres per embryo, higher average embryo morphology score, a higher embryo score parameter, and higher embryo utilization rate compared to the control media. All differences were statistically significant.
Conclusion(s): Improved sequential stage-specific culture media can reduce the occurrence of severe human embryo fragmentation and improve developmental variables in early IVF- and ICSI-generated embryos.