Autologous endometrial coculture in patients with a previous history of poor quality embryos

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of autologous endometrial coculture in patients (less than 36 years old) with a history of a single IVF failed cycle associated with poor quality embryos.Methods:Design: Controlled clinical study. Setting: University-based in vitro fertilization center. Patients: Twenty-six patients with a history of a single prior failed IVF-ET with poor preembryo quality. Intervention(s): Autologous endometrial coculture. Main outcome measures: Preembryo blastomere numbers and cytoplasmic fragmentation rates were compared between the treatment and previous cycle. Clinical pregnancy rates were analyzed.Results: Twenty-six women with an average age of 32.8 ± 2.9 years underwent treatment. On Day 3 the overall mean number of blastomeres per preembryo on coculture compared to conventional medium in a previous cycle was 6.1 ± 1.8 vs. 5.1 ± 1.3 (P = 0.01; Wilcoxon test). The average percentage of cytoplasmic fragments on coculture compared to the conventional medium in a previous cycle was 14% ± 10 vs. 22% ± 13 (P = 0.003; Wilcoxon test). At transfer the mean number of blastomeres per preembryo on coculture was 7.4 ± 1.8 compared to 6.7 ± 1.5 on conventional medium in a previous cycle (P = 0.02; Wilcoxon test). The clinical pregnancy rate (positive fetal cardiac activity) per patient was 88.5%. The delivery rate was 73.1% (19/26).Conclusions: There was an improvement in the preembryo quality for preembryos on autologous endometrial coculture compared to noncocultured preembryos from the same patient in a previous cycle. An excellent delivery rate was subsequently found.