Improved Development of Very-Poor-Quality Human Preembryos by Coculture with Human Fallopian Ampullary Cells

摘要

>Purpose: To determine whether a confluent culture of fallopian ampullary epithelial cells, taken from women at the end of their reproductive life, is capable of rescuing very-poor-quality preembryos from cleavage arrest and/or degeneration.>Methods: Human preembryos, rejected for transfer or freezing because of very poor quality, and arrested within 24 h of cleavage, were cultured for 5 days in medium alone or over a confluent culture of fallopian ampullary epithelial cells. Morphological criteria were utilized to assess preembryo degeneration and stage of development.>Results: The described coculture rescued preembryos from degeneration, enhancing development to the blastocyst stage 2.2-fold, compared with cultures in medium alone. Furthermore, fully expanded and hatching blastocysts were observed only under coculture conditions.>Conclusions: Very-poor-quality human preembryos may be rescued from degeneration, and their growth and development dramatically improved, when cocultured with a confluent culture of fallopian ampullary epithelial cells.