Evaluation of in vitro fertilization outcomes using interleukin-8 in culture medium of human preimplantation embryos

Objective To investigate whether selected cytokines are detectable in the embryo culture medium (EM) of human preimplantation embryos (HPE) and what the relationship is of the cytokines with clinical outcomes. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting University-affiliated tertiary teaching hospital. Patient(s) Three-hundred and thirty infertile women who underwent fresh cycle in vitro fertilization (IVF) between January and December 2014. Intervention(s) Collection on the day of transfer of the EM of each embryo that was transferred in all patients for measurement of cytokine levels. Main Outcome Measure(s) Measurement of 13 selected cytokines in the EM of day-3 HPE to analyze the relationship of the cytokine with embryo quality and clinical outcome. Result(s) Of the cytokines measured, only interleukin-8 (IL-8) was statistically significantly associated with clinical outcome. The rate of detectable IL-8 in the EM was 32.42%, and the pregnancy rate, implantation rate, and number of live births per in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection patient (N LBPP) were higher, and 0 IR was lower in patients for whom the medium from transferred embryos was positive for IL-8 (IL-8 positive group) compared with the patients for whom the medium tested negative for IL-8 (IL-8 negative group). Compared with the IL-8 negative group, a higher pregnancy rate was observed in the IL-8 positive group when the patients received equal good–ordinary quality embryos. Conclusion(s) In the EM from HPE, IL-8 is associated with higher pregnancy rates, higher IRs, and higher N LBPP, so IL-8 may be an independent predictor for pretransfer assessment of the embryo development potential in IVF patients.