New Application of Sequential in Vitro Muturation System for Infertility Patients With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Summary

Oocyte in vitro maturation (IVM) is an artificial reproductive technologies (ART) in which cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) are collected at the immature germinal vesicle (GV) stage from unstimulated or FSH-primed ovaries and matured in vitro before fertilization. IVM has been proposed as a more patient-friendly ART alternative to conventional IVF. Contrary to IVF, IVM is the only ART method with no cases of OHSS reported. Hence, patients with PCOS represent the major target population for IVM treatment.

In clinical practice of standard IVM, COCs are aspirated from unstimulated or mildly stimulated ovaries and rapidly removed from the meiotic-inhibiting influence of the follicle and the follicular fluid. Regardless of in vitro gonadotrophin treatment, oocytes mature spontaneously in vitro, hence undergoing meiotic resumption in the absence of the usual elaborate cascade of endocrine and paracrine molecular signals that induce maturation in vivo. As such, the maturation of oocytes by standard IVM techniques is an artefact that compromises subsequent oocyte developmental competence. Numbers of studies have been proposed to improve the efficiency of IVM system. Synchronization of meiotic and cytoplasmic maturation in antral oocytes arrested at the immature GV-stage remains a major challenge and is of fundamental importance for successful fertilization. High intra-oocyte levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), is crucial to maintain the nearly fully-grown oocytes under meiotic arrest and to induce oocyte maturation. Research in animal models has indicated that a non-physiological drop of cAMP levels in the oocyte results in asynchronous nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation.

Investigators have reported the development of a novel in vitro simulated sequential oocyte maturation system. Critical to success of the approach is a pre-IVM phase that generates a rapid increase in COC cAMP levels. Secondly, the system utilizes an extended IVM phase containing sufficient FSH to drive meiotic induction in the presence of a type-3 PDE inhibitor. The high levels of cAMP in the oocyte and the induced nature of oocyte maturation mimics some of the key, newly characterized molecular signals that occur during oocyte maturation in vivo. Technical and conceptual elements were first developed using mouse, bovine and human COCs. Investigators propose a randomized clinical trial to compare a novel sequential culture system with the traditional standard oocyte IVM system for PCOS patients.

Conditions

• Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
• Infertility

Interventions

DRUG

sequential IVM system

The immature oocytes will be cultured in sequential oocyte IVM medium 1 for 6 hours (37℃, 5% CO2). After flushed 3 times, COCs were removed into sequential oocyte IVM medium 2 for further cultivation.

PROCEDURE

intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)

intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)

PROCEDURE

Thawed embryo transfer (TET)

Patients administrates oestrogen (Progynova) 3mg twice a day for 10 to 12 days. From the day when endometrium reach a thickness of 8 mm and above, luteal phase support will be given with 10 mg progesterone (Dydrogesterone Tablets,) triple per day and utrogestan (Laboratories Besins International, Paris, France) 0.2g triple per day, until 14 days after embryo transfer.

DRUG

traditional IVM system

COCs were aspirated and the immature oocytes will be cultured in traditional standard oocyte IVM system (Sage). 30 and 44 hours after cultivation, the maturity of oocytes will be assessed.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hospital for Reproductive Medicine Affiliated to Shandong University

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• The First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University

  collaborator OTHER

• First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University

  collaborator OTHER

• Shanghai 10th People's Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Sun Yat-sen University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Xiao-yan Liang, M.D. & Ph.D · The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Max Age

35 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-12-31

Primary Completion

2019-07-31

Completion

2020-03-31

Countries

• China

Study Locations