A second look at the embryotoxicity of hydrosalpingeal fluid: an in-vitro assessment in a murine model

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether hydro-salpingeal fluid (H SF) is toxic to the mouse embryo as assessed by the blastocyst development rate (BDR) and by cell counting in vitro, HSF was collected from nine patie nts undergoing salpingoneostomy to correct hydrosalpinx, Two-cell embryos w ere obtained from superovulated ICR mice. T6 medium and T6 + 0.4% bovine se rum albumin (BSA) were used as control media. T6 medium containing 10% or 5 0% HSF and 100% HSF from each patient were used as test media. Nine to 15 e mbryos were cultured in microdrops prepared from each of these media, The B DR was examined after 72 h of culture in these media, To assess the total c ell number within each blastocyst, the blastocysts were fixed and stained, with Hoechst 33342 to facilitate cell counting. The BDR was affected advers ely only by 100% HSF and not in media containing 10% or 50% HSF. The mean B DR using T6 medium and T6 + BSA were 88.7% and 85.3%, respectively, The mea n BDR using media containing 10% HSF or 50% HSF were 90.0% and 89.4%, respe ctively, Mean BDR using 100% HSF was 75.2% (P < 0.05). The overall mean cel l counts (+/- SEM) using T6 medium and T6 + BSA were 86.9 +/- 3.2 and 91.0 +/- 3.8 respectively. Mean cells counts were decreased significantly only i n blastocysts cultured in 100% HSF (63.3 +/- 4.6; P < 0.01) but not in blas tocysts cultured in 10% or 50% HSF (90.8 +/-14.2 and 81.9 +/- 6.1 respectiv ely). Thus, it is concluded that HSF has no embryotoxic effect but has a mi ldly negative effect on embryonic growth and development.