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Trophectoderm morphology predicts outcomes of pregnancy in vitrified-warmed single-blastocyst transfer cycle in a Chinese population

  • Assisted Reproduction Technologies
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Abstract

Purpose

In this study, we estimated the effect of blastocoele expansion, ICM and TE quality after warming and culture on the rates of clinical pregnancy, live birth and miscarriage in vitrified-warmed single-blastocyst transfer cycle in a Chinese population.

Methods

A retrospective analysis of 263 cycles of vitrified-warmed single-blastocyst transfers was performed.

Results

The blastocysts with higher TE grade significantly increased the rates of clinical pregnancy (OR = 0.59, 95 % CI, 0.35–0.99, P = 0.045, grade (A + B) vs grade C) and live birth (OR = 0.55, 95 % CI, 0.32–0.94, P = 0.029, grade (A + B) vs grade C). And the association between TE grade and the rate of live birth didn’t change after the number of repeated cycles was adjusted (OR = 0.55, 95 % CI, 0.32–0.95, P = 0.033, grade (A + B) vs grade C). The number of repeated cycles was a confounding factor significantly different between the live birth and no live birth groups. By contrast, neither blastocoele expansion nor inner cell mass was statistically related to the rates of clinical pregnancy, live birth and miscarriage.

Conclusions

Our data firstly provided the evidence that TE grading, but not ICM grading, was significantly associated with the clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate in vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer cycles in a Chinese population. TE morphology may help predict outcomes of pregnancy in single-blastocyst transfer.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 81100420 and 81270701), the Foundation of Nanjing Medical University (grant no. 2011NJMU210), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant no. BK2012520) and Nanjing Medical Science and Technique Development Foundation (2010NJMU030).

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Department of Reproduction, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210004, Jiangsu Province, China

    Xiaojiao Chen, Junqiang Zhang, Xun Wu, Shanren Cao, Lin Zhou, Ying Wang, Xin Chen, Jin Lu, Chun Zhao & Xiufeng Ling

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Molecular and Medical Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210046, Jiangsu Province, China

    Junqiang Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 211166, China

    Minjian Chen

Authors
  1. Xiaojiao Chen
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  2. Junqiang Zhang
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  3. Xun Wu
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  4. Shanren Cao
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  5. Lin Zhou
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  7. Xin Chen
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  8. Jin Lu
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  9. Chun Zhao
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  10. Minjian Chen
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  11. Xiufeng Ling
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiufeng Ling.

Additional information

Capsule This study focused on blastocysts morphology and outcomes of pregnancy. Two hundred sixty three cycles of vitrified-warmed single-blastocyst transfers were performed. We found that the blastocysts with higher TE grade increased the rates of clinical pregnancy and live birth.

Xiaojiao Chen and Junqiang Zhang contributed equally.

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Chen, X., Zhang, J., Wu, X. et al. Trophectoderm morphology predicts outcomes of pregnancy in vitrified-warmed single-blastocyst transfer cycle in a Chinese population. J Assist Reprod Genet 31, 1475–1481 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-014-0317-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-014-0317-x

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