#82 : Does Apoptotic Body Impair Pregnancy Outcome

Abstract

Background: Morphologically suboptimal blastocyst is often associated with poorer pregnancy outcomes. Apoptotic body is one of the abnormal findings in blastocysts characterised by cellular shrinkage and a darker appearance. The presence of apoptotic bodies may be suggestive of ongoing cellular degeneration. Cellular degeneration in the blastocyst is part of its self-corrective mechanism. The degenerated cells will deplete through the phagocytosis process. Aims: This is a retrospective study that aims to analyse whether the presence of apoptotic body has a significant impact on pregnancy outcomes. Method: We compare the outcome of the frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycle of blastocysts with apoptotic body and without it as a control. We further divide the cases into single blastocyst transfer and double blastocyst transfer. The data was collected from Vistana Fertility Centre from January to December 2022. Results: Conclusion: Data analysis showed that there is no significant difference between the study group and the control group. Hence, the presence of dead cells did not negatively impact the pregnancy outcomes.