Evaluation of the effect of antioxidants on in vitro maturation medium supplemented with follicular fluid of infertile women with endometriosis on oocyte and embryo quality using experimental bovine model

Abstract

Endometriosis is a disease of high prevalence in women of reproductive age and has a strong association with infertility. The pathogenic mechanisms responsible both for the reduction of fertility, as the worst outcome of assisted reproduction in women with this disease remain poorly understood, being questioned a possible deleterious role of endometriosis on oocyte quality, possibly mediated by oxidative stress (OS). Recently, in our laboratory, it was demonstrated that follicular fluid (FF) of patients with mild endometriosis cause meiotic anomalies in oocytes when added to the medium of in vitro maturation (IVM) in cattle. However, the mechanisms by which the FF of women with endometriosis promotes oocyte meiotic abnormalities remain unknown, motivating the study design, in order to evaluate the effect of addition of the antioxidant L-carnitine and N-acetyl-cysteine to the IVM medium supplemented with FF of infertile women with or without endometriosis on oocyte meiotic anomalies, embryonic development and apoptosis in blastocysts using cattle model. For analysis of meiotic abnormalities, after IVM, the oocytes will be fixed and fluorescently labeled for visualization of the spindle cell and chromosome distribution. To analyze the impact of FF on embryo quality after in vitro fertilization, will be observed the rate of formation of hatched blastocysts and the percentage of apoptotic blastomeres in hatched blastocysts by the TUNEL technique. The findings aim to gather information about the pathogenic mechanisms of infertility related to disease and open up perspectives for new therapeutic approaches. (AU)