Can cytoplasmic donation rescue aged oocytes?

BACKGROUND: The pregnancy and delivery rates following assisted reproductive technology (ART) start to decrease and that the miscarriage rate increases rapidly from 35 years old. The miscarriage rate exceeds 50% at 43 years old. The number of aneuploid fetuses in miscarriages increases according to female age, reaching more than 90% when women are over 40 years old. METHODS: Different cytoplasmic donation technologies used to rescue aged oocytes with high percentage of aneuploidy were analyzed, and their efficacy compared. MAIN FINDINGS (RESULTS): Germinal vesicle transfer (GVT) might be superior to spindle chromosome transfer (ST) theoretically from the point of higher capability of rescuing the disjunction at meiosis I which cannot be helped by ST. However, actually, in vitro maturation (IVM) of oocyte after GVT has not yet been totally completed. ST among other nuclear donations showed the higher possibility to rescue them, due to the fact it does not require in vitro maturation and it has an ethical advantage over pronuclear transfer (PNT) which requires the destruction of an embryo. CONCLUSION: Spindle chromosome transfer has the potential to rescue aged oocytes to some extent, but we have to continue the basic study further to establish the clinical application of cytoplasmic donation to rescue aged oocytes.