Oxidative balance in follicular fluid of ART patients of advanced maternal age and blastocyst formation

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the follicular fluid oxidative balance of infertile patients of advanced-maternal-age and the correlation between oxidative imbalance in the follicular fluid and the embryological outcomes. METHODS: Follicular fluid (FF) from infertile patients of advanced-maternal-age undergoing ART treatments were collected and frozen in cryovials at -86°C until further use, and analyzed at the Biochemistry and Nutrition Institute of San Marcos University. As controls, we used FF from oocyte donors. The FF was then assayed for oxidative balance by ABTS, FRAP and TBARS assays. In order to establish the correlation between oxidative balance and embryo quality, we correlated the number of usable blastocysts (freshly transferred or frozen blastocysts) with the results from ABTS, FRAP and TBARS. RESULTS: Follicular fluid from patients of Advanced-maternal-age (AMA group) significantly differed from the values found in the control group; the ABTS value was higher and the FRAP value was lower, in comparison to the FF from oocyte donors (control group). The lipid peroxidation was not different between those two groups. Furthermore, there was no significant correlation among the results of the assays, or when correlated with the proportion of usable blastocysts. CONCLUSION: Ovarian oxidative balance seems to be critical for oocyte quality in advanced-maternal-age patients; however, we still need more studies on oxidative stress indicators, on a larger set of patients.