The correlation analysis of human embryonic MMP-9 secretion and embryo quality

J. Gu, C.-H. Han, F.-F. Hu, Y.-B. Wang, Y.-J. Cao

Xuzhou Central Hospital, The Affiliated Xuzhou Hospital of Medical College of Southeast University, Xuzhou Clinical School of Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou Clinical Medical College of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Southeast University Reproductive Medicine Institute Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China. xzjj2002@126.com

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• Obstetrics

OBJECTIVE: The correlation of the embryo matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) secretion, embryonic development and clinical pregnancy was investigated.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The embryo culture from in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) patients were collected in the Xuzhou Central Hospital from January 2013 to September 2014. At the same time, the embryo grade was recorded. The secretion of the MMP-9 in the embryo culture was detected through hybridization (Dot-blot) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The clinical pregnancy outcome was followed after one month of the embryo transfer.

RESULTS: With the embryonic development from 2-cell to 8-cell, embryonic MMP-9 secretion increased gradually (p < 0.05). Though 8/I embryo, the secretion of MMP-9 are not identical. The quantitative detection of the MMP-9 secretion of the 8-cell embryo by ELISA is higher as is the embryo score, but the low secretion of embryo score is lower (p < 0.001). As 8/I embryos, the clinical pregnancy rate (77.3%) of the MMP-9 high secretion embryos is higher than the low secretion embryos (16.7%) (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: The secretion of the embryonic MMP-9 is closely related to the quality of the embryo and embryo implantation. It is speculated that MMP-9 may become one of the criteria to evaluate the quality of the embryos.

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