Mechanically expanding the zona pellucida of human frozen thawed embryos: a new method of assisted hatching

作者：Fang, Cong; Li, Tao^*; Miao, Ben-Yu; Zhuang, Guang-Lun; Zhou, Canquan

来源：Fertility and Sterility, 2010, 94(4): 1302-1307.

DOI：10.1016/j.fertnstert.2009.08.014

• Assisted hatching
• frozen-thawed embryo
• implantation
• zona pellucida

Objective: To determine whether a new assisted hatching (AH) method increases the implantation and clinical pregnancy rates of frozen-thawed day-3 (D3) embryos. @@@ Design: Prospective study. @@@ Setting: A university hospital in vitro fertilization (IVF) program. @@@ Patient(s): Patients who had their first IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles between June 1, 2006, and December 31, 2008, with fresh IVF-embryo transfer failures or without fresh embryo transfer. @@@ Intervention(s): The couples were randomized into thawed embryo transfer after AH versus no AH. In the AH group, the zona pellucida (ZP) of D3 frozen-thawed embryos was expanded by injected hydrostatic pressure after thawing. In the control group, embryos were pierced by ICSI needles without expanding the ZP. @@@ Main Outcome Measure(s): Clinical pregnancy and implantation rates. @@@ Result(s): The morphologic features of the blastomeres were carefully monitored and recorded. In the AH group, 244 embryos were thawed, and 178 (73.0%) survived; in the control group, 259 embryos were thawed, and 190 (73.4%) survived. Despite the transfer of a similar number of embryos, the AH group resulted in statistically significantly higher implantation and clinical pregnancy rates compared with the no AH group. @@@ Conclusion(s): Mechanically expanding the ZP of frozen-thawed D3 embryos with injected hydrostatic pressure after thawing increases the implantation rate compared with control embryos. (Fertil Steril (R) 2010;94:1302-7.

• 出版日期2010-9
• 单位中山大学