Associations of the Single Bovine Embryo Growth Media Metabolome with Successful Pregnancy
Elina Tsopp,
Kalle Kilk,
Egon Taalberg,
Pille Pärn,
Anni Viljaste-Seera,
Ants Kavak,
Ülle Jaakma
Affiliations
Elina Tsopp
Chair of Animal Breeding and Biotechnology, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
Kalle Kilk
Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
Egon Taalberg
Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
Pille Pärn
Chair of Animal Breeding and Biotechnology, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
Anni Viljaste-Seera
Chair of Animal Breeding and Biotechnology, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
Ants Kavak
Chair of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
Ülle Jaakma
Chair of Animal Breeding and Biotechnology, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
This study investigated whether metabolomic fingerprints of bovine embryo growth media improve the prediction of successful embryo implantation. In this prospective cohort study, the metabolome from in vitro-produced day 7 blastocysts with successful implantation (n = 11), blastocysts with failed implantation (n = 10), and plain culture media without embryos (n = 5) were included. Samples were analyzed using an AbsoluteIDQ® p180 Targeted Metabolomics Kit with LC-MS/MS, and a total of 189 metabolites were analyzed from each sample. Blastocysts that resulted in successful embryo implantation had significantly higher levels of methionine sulfoxide (p p p p p p < 0.001) compared to control media. However, when compared to embryos that failed to implant, only DOPA, spermidine, C2/C0, (C2 + C3)/C0, and PC ae C30:0 levels differentiated significantly. In summary, our study identifies a panel of differential metabolites in the culture media of bovine blastocysts that could act as potential biomarkers for the selection of viable blastocysts before embryo transfer.
