Evaluation of utilization of amplified blastocoel fluid DNA gel electrophoresis band intensity as an additional minimally invasive approach in embryo selection: A cross-sectional study

Background: Embryo selection for transfer is critical in assisted reproduction. The presence of DNA in the blastocoel cavity of human blastocysts is assumed to be a consequence of common preimplantation chromosomal abnormalities. Objective: This study examined the relationship between the amount of blastocoel fluid (BF) DNA and the band intensity of amplified BF-DNA in gel electrophoresis, considering the influence of ploidy status. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study categorizes blastocysts into 2 groups based on the array comparative genomic hybridization results by trophectoderm biopsy -the euploid and aneuploid group. After morphological scoring, a biopsy of BF was performed for whole genome amplification, followed by an assessment of band intensity and BF-DNA quantification. The relationship between BF-DNA levels, band intensity, and ploidy status were analyzed. Results: The level of BF-DNA was higher in the aneuploid group compared to the euploid group, but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.2). We observed that the band intensity was affected by the ploidy status of the embryos, although this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.059). Notably, electrophoresis band of all embryos with chromosomal loss was strong. No correlation was observed between embryo morphology and chromosomal ploidy (p = 0.8). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that BF-DNA band intensity on agarose gel is not currently applicable for preimplantation embryo selection. It seems that embryos with chromosomal loss are more prone to DNA release to BF. The disrelation between embryo morphology and ploidy status represents the necessity of minimally invasive embryo screening methods based on ploidy status.