Metabolomic assessment of oocyte viability

The aim of the current study was to evaluate whether near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy-generated metabolomic data obtained from oocyte culture samples would correlate with nuclear maturity status and derived embryo development. A total of 412 oocyte culture samples were collected from 43 patient cycles. Metabolomic profiles of metaphase I and II oocytes were obtained by NIR spectroscopy and were significantly different from each other and from profiles of prophase I (germinal vesicle) oocytes (P < 0.001 at the 95% confidence interval). Additionally, NIR spectroscopic analysis of culture medium of oocytes that developed to grade A embryos on day 3 demonstrated significantly higher viability indices (0.62 ± 0.23) than those that developed to grades C/D (0.42 ± 0.26; P < 0.006); and on day 5 grade A (0.37 ± 0.20) was also higher than grades C/D (0.14 ± 0.21; P < 0.02). Metabolomic profiles of oocytes that resulted in pregnancy had higher viability indices (0.87 ± 0.27) than those that did not (0.44 ± 0.17; P < 0.0001). The results of the current study demonstrate that metabolomic profiling from spent culture medium of the oocyte is related to nuclear maturity, is able to predict embryo development at day 3 and day 5 stages, and relates to embryo viability.