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Intrafollicular melatonin concentration is elevated in patients with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and can serve as an important predictor of OHSS

  • Gynecologic Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Melatonin is an important factor in regulating numerous processes in human female reproduction. The aim of the present study was to compare melatonin levels in the follicular fluid (FF) of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) women with those of non-OHSS women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF)-embryo transfer and to evaluate the relationship between FF melatonin levels and IVF outcomes in these women.

Methods

We determined FF melatonin levels in 20 OHSS women and 23 non-OHSS women on oocyte retrieval day.

Results

OHSS patients had significantly higher melatonin levels as compared to the non-OHSS women (P < 0.001). In addition, melatonin levels of the patients were significantly positively correlated with antral follicle count (AFC), serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels, serum estradiol (E2) levels on human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) administration day, number of retrieved oocytes, total fertilized oocytes, normally fertilized oocytes, cleaved zygotes, top quality embryos on day 3, blastocysts obtained and embryos suitable for transplantation (day 3 embryos + day 5/6 blastocysts) (P < 0.05). While, the intrafollicular melatonin levels were significantly negatively correlated with age, basal serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels, serum FSH levels on HCG administration day (P < 0.01). Since younger women with more AFC, higher AMH levels, higher serum E2 levels and larger number of retrieved oocytes are much easier to encounter OHSS, while FF melatonin levels are significantly correlated with these five indices in our study, we propose that intrafollicular melatonin concentration can also be an important predictor of OHSS.

Conclusions

This is the first demonstration that FF melatonin levels were significantly higher in OHSS patients than in non-OHSS group and FF melatonin levels may serve as an important predictor of OHSS.

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Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81490743) to Z.-J.C.; by grants from National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1001403) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC: 31671199 and 31871512) to C.Z.; and by the Shanghai Commission of Science and Technology (17DZ2271100).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Reproductive Medicine, School of Medicine, RenJi Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200135, China

    Min Zheng, Jing Tong, Zi-Jiang Chen, Wei-Ping Li & Cong Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of Animal Resistance Research, College of Life Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, 250014, Shandong, China

    Min Zheng & Cong Zhang

  3. Shanghai Key Laboratory for Assisted Reproduction and Reproductive Genetics, Shanghai, 200135, China

    Min Zheng, Jing Tong, Zi-Jiang Chen, Wei-Ping Li & Cong Zhang

  4. Shanghai Jinshan High School, Shanghai, 201599, China

    Gaoge Zuo

Authors
  1. Min Zheng
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  2. Gaoge Zuo
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  3. Jing Tong
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  4. Zi-Jiang Chen
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  5. Wei-Ping Li
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  6. Cong Zhang
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Contributions

CZ: project development and editing, MZ: tissue collection, data analysis, manuscript writing and project development, GZ: tissue collection, JT: tissue collection, W-PL: project development, Z-JC: project development.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cong Zhang.

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Conflict of interest

All of the authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study involving were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (no. 2015030308) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Zheng, M., Zuo, G., Tong, J. et al. Intrafollicular melatonin concentration is elevated in patients with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and can serve as an important predictor of OHSS. Arch Gynecol Obstet 299, 1151–1158 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4994-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4994-z

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