Urinary follicle-stimulating hormone is not different than recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone on embryo quality and karyotype makeup during induction of ovulation in women with recurrent pregnancy failure

Abstract

Background and objectives Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is critical for the onset and duration of follicular development. This can be promoted medically by drugs such as follitropin beta and recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone (rFSH) technology. The former is purified from CHO cell culture supernatant (111 amino acid) and has a high biochemical purity (>99%), with specific biological activity (about 10 000 IU/mg protein), and no luteinizing hormone activity. The drugs used for ovulation induction during in vitro fertilization may affect the number and quality of follicles produced. This in turn may affect the quality and the integrity of the embryos generated. Bad-quality embryos may cause recurrent pregnancy failure. We aimed to assess the relationship of urinary follicle-stimulating hormone (uFSH) versus recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone (rFSH) drugs in producing embryos with chromosomal abnormalities. Patients and methods Seven women were enrolled for the intracytoplasmic sperm injection trial: Three had highly purified uFSH and four had rFSH. All embryos had blastomere extraction on day 3 after injection but the preimplantation genetic screening was carried out 6 weeks after embryo transfer. Only one embryo was transferred to each woman. Results and conclusion The results revealed that there was no difference between the two drugs in terms of number and quality of embryos fertilized or abnormal karyotype assessed. Overall, 71% of the women included had some form of chromosomal abnormality (4/7). However, two of them miscarried between 2 and 3 weeks later. Either of uFSH or rFSH did not improve the quality or integrity of the embryos. However, preimplantation genetic screening is a valuable tool in the selection of embryos in assisted conception cycles to increase the take-home baby rate.