Presence of Meiotic Spindles Indicates Early Cleavage of Embryos

ObjectiveTo assess whether the detection of the meiotic spindle could anticipate the appearance of early cleavage.MethodsOocytes were obtained from stimulated ovaries of consenting patients undergoing oocytes retrieval for ICSI. Spindles were imaged with the Polscope. After ICSI, oocytes with or without spindles were cultured for examination of early cleavage and embryo development. A total of 328 oocytes from 50 cycles were examined with the Polscope and inseminated by ICSI.ResultsSpindles were imaged in 81.7% of oocytes. After ICSI, more oocytes with spindles (78.4%) fertilized normally than oocytes without spindles (53.3%) (P<0.001). At 25–27 h post ICSI, more fertilized oocytes developed from oocytes with spindles (81.9%) were detected early cleavage than those from oocytes without spindles (28.1%) (P<0.001). Significantly more embryos with early cleavage (82.2%) developed to high quality embryos at d 3 compared with the embryos without early cleavage (48.3%) (P = 0.001). The value of rs related to the relationship between spindles and early cleavage was 0.420 (P<0.001).ConclusionThe existing of the early cleavage may have a predictive value on the opportunity of high quality embryos and the existing of the spindle may have a predictive value in the appearance of early cleavage.