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Filter by:Background: Advanced maternal age (AMA) is associated with a reduction in live birth rate (LBR) after ART cycles. The main reason for this reduction is the lower number of oocytes aspirated, the number of developing embryos and the low number of euploid embryos available for transfer. The impact of age on success rates after the transfer of an euploid embryo has been a matter of discussion, with a recent meta-analysis showing a reduction in LBR after the transfer of an euploid blastocyst to women of AMA (1). There could be many reasons for this reduced LBR but they can be categorized into two broad categories - the uterus (including the mother's health) and the embryo (including the oocyte and the sperm). It is possible that factors associated with reduced embryo quality would manifest in a lower embryo grade.
PIF: biomarker of successful implantation To overcome the poor reproductive potential of embryos generated during in vitro fertilization cycles and the lack of markers enabling the identification of the most competent ones, it is common to transfer multiple embryos. However this practice is associated with the risks of multi-fetal pregnancies and high morbidity/mortality. Ideally, the availability of a marker specifically produced by viable embryos would permit the transfer of a single embryo (SET) without affecting the chances of pregnancy and, most importantly, capable to drastically reduce multiple pregnancies after IVF. In preliminary work, we demonstrated that no pregnancy resulted following the transfer of embryos where PIF was undetectable in culture media.(Keramitsoglou, T et al. ASRI Meeting, Hamburg, 2012) Using a non-invasive method of detection of PIF in the media surrounding the embryo will be correlated to live birth following single embryo transfer. By selecting only viable embryos, it will reduce the need for multiple IVF cycles, increase the rate of pregnancy outcome associated with SET, and will minimize multi-fetal pregnancy that has very high medical and societal costs both in pregnancy and after delivery.