A prospective study to evaluate the gender prediction of blastocysts by using cell-free DNA within a culture medium.

BACKGROUND

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has been used as an option for couples with the possibility of having a baby with a genetic disorder. The common method for performing this test involves isolating 1 cell from day 3 or a few cells from day 5 embryos and performing genetic studies on the cell-extracted DNA. This method is invasive and can cause abortion after implantation in the uterus. Because of this, 2 noninvasive methods for performing a PGD have been studied: PGD using blastocyst fluid and PGD using embryo culture medium.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to determine the sensitivity of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique to detect the Y chromosome using cell-free DNA within a culture medium for gender prediction of blastocysts.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

In this study, the gender of 30 embryos on day 5 was determined using embryonic DNA extraction from the culture medium and the PCR technique to evaluate the sex-determining region Y and fragile X mental retardation genes. Then, the accuracy was assessed using ultrasound.

RESULTS

The results of the PCR technique showed that 7 embryos were male, but an ultrasound revealed that 13 were male.

CONCLUSION

The given results indicated that, because of the low amount of DNA extracted from the culture medium, the diagnosis of the existence of the Y chromosome by this method is still not accurate enough for detecting the gender of the embryo.