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Intra- and inter-individual variability of fatty acid composition of the follicular fluid in a cohort of 23 women undergoing assisted reproductive treatment

  • Assisted Reproduction Technologies
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

To examine the intra- and inter-individual variability in fatty acid composition of follicular fluid (FF) of 23 patients undergoing assisted reproductive treatment.

Methods

The average coefficient of variation within each patient (CVw) and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) values of FF fatty acid composition as well as correlation between the fatty acid composition of individual, pooled or first-punctured follicles, were assessed.

Results

The proportions of 16:0, 18:0, cis-9 18:1, 18:2n-6, 20:5n-3, total MUFA and n-3 PUFA showed good reproducibility (CVw < 10%). Although CVw values of 18:3n-3 and 20:3n-6 exceeded 10%, variation between patients exceeded intra-individual variation as indicated by elevated ICC values (0.61 and 0.66, respectively). Nevertheless, 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 showed non-negligible intra-patient variation. With the exception of some minor fatty acids (< 0.30 g/100 g), strong relationships were demonstrated between the average proportion in individually analysed follicles and the proportion determined in pooled samples and in the first, largest follicle.

Conclusion

The CVw and ICC values of proportions of 16:0, 18:0, cis-9 18:1, 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:5n-3, total MUFA and n-3 PUFA showed limited intra-individual variation and moderate to good reliability. However, this is not the case for some other PUFA, such as 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3. Nevertheless, for all of these fatty acid(s) (groups), calculated average fatty acid proportions were highly correlated with proportions determined in pooled samples and in the first, largest follicle. This implies that single or pooled follicle aspiration suffices to assess intra-individual variation in the FF of these fatty acids.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Charlotte Melis for her assistance in processing the samples. We thank the team of the Department of Reproductive Medicine, especially Dr. Frank Dumortier for the sampling of the follicles, the colleagues from the IVF lab for the processing of the FF samples and the study nurses for helping in the patient recruitment.

Funding

This study was funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council and the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (Belgium).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Y. J. Liu, B. Vlaeminck & V. Fievez

  2. Department for Reproductive Medicine, Ghent University Hospital, C. Heymanslaan 10, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    K. Tilleman & P. De Sutter

  3. Department of Animal Sciences, Laval University, 2425, rue de l’Agriculture, Québec, Québec, G1V 0A6, Canada

    P. Y. Chouinard & R. Gervais

Authors
  1. Y. J. Liu
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  2. B. Vlaeminck
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  3. K. Tilleman
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  4. P. Y. Chouinard
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  5. R. Gervais
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  6. P. De Sutter
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  7. V. Fievez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to V. Fievez.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from each patient prior to assisted reproductive treatment.

Ethical approval

The study design was approved by the local ethics committee of the Ghent University Hospital (2016/0259, Belgian registration number: B670201627735).

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Percentiles (25th, 50th, 75th) of non-normally distributed fatty acids proportions in the follicular fluid from 23 patients undergoing assisted reproductive technology. (PDF 32 kb)

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Liu, Y.J., Vlaeminck, B., Tilleman, K. et al. Intra- and inter-individual variability of fatty acid composition of the follicular fluid in a cohort of 23 women undergoing assisted reproductive treatment. J Assist Reprod Genet 37, 649–655 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-019-01669-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-019-01669-6

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