Oocyte morphology and early zygote cleavage does not appear to be related to intrafollicular concentrations of inhibin-A or -B

Purpose: The aim was to investigate the relationship of intrafollicular inh ibin dimers A and B with human oocyte morphology and subsequent embryo pote ntial. Methods: Sixty-eight oocytes were isolated from 31 women undertaking intrac ytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, l uteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), prolactin, sex hormone-binding globulin, inhibin-A and inhibin-B was assayed in correspon ding follicular fluid. Results: The mean (+/- SD) concentration for inhibin-A was 9.7 +/- 9.8 ng/m l (range, 1.1-60.0 ng/ml) and for inhibin-B was 269.4 +/- 185.2 ng/ml (rang e, 33.1-811.0 ng/ml). In a correlation matrix there were no marked relation ships (r < 0.556) between inhibin and steroid or gonadotropin concentration s. Similarly when inhibin concentrations were divided according to whether the oocytes had mature or immature cumulous complexes, were viable or necro tic, were meiotically immature or mature, became fertilized or not, or had different embryo gradings after cleavage, no statistically significant diff erence could be seen between groupings. Conclusions: Because the range of values was large and the data often skewe d, neither inhibin dimer has discriminatory power to reflect the potential of the oocyte.