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Higher implantation and live birth rates with laser zona pellucida breaching than thinning in single frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer

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Abstract

While zona pellucida (ZP) breaching of day-3 frozen blastocysts embryos can increase the blastocyst hatching rate, compared with ZP thinning, the pregnancy and implantation rates are similar. The aim of this study was to compare pregnancy outcomes and the risks associated with frozen–thawed blastocysts between laser ZP breaching and laser ZP thinning. For the thinning group, ZP of thawed blastocyst was thinned to a length of 30–40 μm using laser between January 2013 and October 2015. On the other hand, for the breaching group, thawed blastocysts were breached with a 60–80 μm hole in the ZP using laser between November 2015 and April 2018. The implantation rate of ZP breaching (72.7%) was higher than that of ZP thinning (61.8%). In single frozen blastocyst transfer, the implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate, and live birth rate of ZP breaching (73.9%, 73.9%, 61.8%, respectively) were significantly higher than those of ZP thinning (60.9%, 60.9%, 46.7%, respectively). The abortion rate, preterm birth rate, congenital malformation, birth defects, and birth weight did not significantly differ between the two groups. In conclusion, laser assisted hatching during single frozen blastocyst transfer using ZP breaching exhibit higher implantation, pregnancy, and live birth rates compared with ZP thinning. No significant differences were observed between the two assisted hatching methods in terms of adverse effects on pregnancy and newborns.

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Data availability

The datasets used in the study can be obtained from the corresponding author if there is reasonable request.

Abbreviations

ART:

Assisted reproductive technology;

LAH:

Laser assisted hatching

ICSI:

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection

IVF:

In vitro fertilization

FET:

Frozen embryo transfer

hCG:

Human chorionic gonadotropin

LBW:

Low birth weight

SD:

Standard deviation

ZP:

Zona pellucida

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Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to all the staff in the Reproductive Medicine Center of Zhanjiang Jiuhe Hospital.

Funding

There were no funding sources for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China

    Chengjun Liu, Chenfeng Yuan, Maosheng Cao, Chunjin Li & Xu Zhou

  2. Reproductive Medical Center, Zhanjiang Jiuhe Hospital, Zhanjiang, China

    Ketong Su & Huili Ji

  3. Reproductive Medical Center, The Sixth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China

    Wei Shang

Authors
  1. Chengjun Liu
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  2. Ketong Su
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  3. Wei Shang
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  4. Huili Ji
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  5. Chenfeng Yuan
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  6. Maosheng Cao
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  7. Chunjin Li
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  8. Xu Zhou
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Contributions

CJL participated in the study design, data analysis, and manuscript writing. KTS participated in the study design, data acquisition and analysis, and critical discussions. SW participated in the study design, data analysis, and critical discussions. HLJ, CFY, and MSC participated in the study design and data collection. CJL participated in the study design, data analysis, discussions, and manuscript revision. XZ participated in the study design, data analysis, and critical revision of the manuscript content.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Chunjin Li or Xu Zhou.

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Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Zhanjiang Jiuhe Hospital. All patients in our study signed informed consents.

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Not applicable because of the privacy of patients information.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. All authors approved the publication of the manuscript.

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Chengjun Liu and Ketong Su are co-first authors of the article .

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Liu, C., Su, K., Shang, W. et al. Higher implantation and live birth rates with laser zona pellucida breaching than thinning in single frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer. Lasers Med Sci 35, 1349–1355 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-019-02946-7

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