The Assessment of Purity Level of CO2 Used in Horizontal Incubators and The Effect of Additional In-Line Filters on Embryo Development |Biomedgrid

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to investigate whether carbon dioxide (CO2) used in horizontal incubators during in vitro fertilization (IVF) is pure enough and whether the addition of In-Line filters affects the stress on blastocysts and blastocyst utilization rate. Materials and Methods: To examine the effect of the purity of CO2 gas on embryo quality, two pronuclei (PN) embryos of patients younger than 35 years old and undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were divided into two groups. Embryos in Group 1 were cultured in the incubator, which has an extra CO2 filter, whilst those in Group 2 (control group) were cultured without any additional filtering. On day 3 (D3), Day 5 (D5), embryo qualities and blastocyst utilization rates between groups were examined. Three different filters with different brands were examined regarding their effects on embryo quality within groups. For animal studies, 10-week-old female BALB/C mice (n=10) were stimulated with Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) followed by Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) and mated with fertility-proven adult male mice. Mice with vaginal plaques after 24 hours were sacrificed, and 1-cell embryos were collected. Embryos were pooled first and then distributed into Group 1 and Group 2 randomly. To assess the effect of gas purity on embryonic stress, Glucose-regulated Protein 78 (GRP78) level was examined using Western blot method.