EFFECT OF FOLLICULAR-FLUID SUPPLEMENTATION ON THE IN-VITRO DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN PRE-EMBRYOS

Objective: To evaluate the value of supplementing a standard culture m edium with 10% heat-inactivated mature follicular fluid (FF). Design: Prospective randomized study evaluating the in vitro development of no ntransferred, nonfrozen human pre-embryos in three culture conditions from day 3 to day 8 postfertilization. Preliminary evaluation by RIA a nd electrophoresis of factors responsible for these results. Results: Ten percent mature FF supplementation of Inra Menezo (B-2 medium) was associated with a significantly higher proportion of human pre-embryos reaching the morula (95% versus 72% with 10% maternal serum, P = 0.04 ) and the blastocyst stage (50% versus 11% with B, alone, P = 0.02). T he concentration of insulin-like growth factors I and II did not diffe r significantly between serum and mature FF-supplemented medium. Prote in electrophoresis showed a difference of two bands corresponding to a molecular weight of 17,000 present in the serum and not in the FF-sup plemented medium. Conclusion: Culture medium supplementation with 10% mature FF is associated with a significantly higher proportion of pre- embryos reaching the morula and blastocyst stage. The observed differe nce could be explained by the presence of a low molecular weight (17,0 00) embryotoxic factor contained in the serum-supplemented medium.