Efficacy of the in vitro splitting of human preimplantation embryos from ART programs

BACKGROUND/AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of in vitro embryo splitting (IES) procedures. We also assessed the quality of the blastocysts developed from embryos obtained from different sources. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Good quality embryos at 6–8-cell stages were categorized according to their fertilization sources: 1) frozen-warmed donated embryos, 2) chromosomally abnormal embryos, 3) parthenogenetic embryos, and 4) embryos derived from fertilization of in vitro matured oocytes (rescue IVM). After IES, splitting and developmental efficiency was assessed. Furthermore, the quality of the developed blastocysts was evaluated by Hoechst and propidium iodide (PI) staining. RESULTS: The data showed a high rate of both splitting and developmental efficiency in the frozen-warmed embryos after IES (140% and 71.7%, respectively), followed by chromosomally abnormal embryos (96.8% and 52.5%, respectively). Results of the Hoechst and PI staining showed that the mean ± SD cell numbers of the control group were higher (113.11 ± 16.01) than that of twins A (donor blastomeres embryos, 58 ± 12.2) and B (recipient blastomeres embryos, 50.4 ± 8.5), respectively. CONCLUSION: Chromosomally normal embryos enrolled in IES are more potent to develop into viable blastocysts. For research purposes, 1PN and 3PN embryos are the best options for splitting procedures, regardless of the poor quality of developed blastocysts.