TY  - JOUR
AV  - public
TI  - Seeking arrangements: cell contact as a cleavage-stage biomarker
Y1  - 2024/03//
SN  - 1472-6483
ID  - discovery10185912
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2023.103654
N2  - Research question:
What can three-dimensional cell contact networks tell us about the developmental potential of cleavage-stage human embryos?
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Design:
This pilot study was a retrospective analysis of two Embryoscope imaging datasets from two clinics. An artificial intelligence system was used to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of embryos from 11-plane focal stacks. Networks of cell contacts were extracted from the resulting embryo three-dimensional models and each embryo's mean contacts per cell was computed. Unpaired t-tests and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were used to statistically analyse mean cell contact outcomes. Cell contact networks from different embryos were compared with identical embryos with similar cell arrangements.
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Results:
At t4, a higher mean number of contacts per cell was associated with greater rates of blastulation and blastocyst quality. No associations were found with biochemical pregnancy, live birth, miscarriage or ploidy. At t8, a higher mean number of contacts was associated with increased blastocyst quality, biochemical pregnancy and live birth. No associations were found with miscarriage or aneuploidy. Mean contacts at t4 weakly correlated with those at t8. Four-cell embryos fell into nine distinct cell arrangements; the five most common accounted for 97% of embryos. Eight-cell embryos, however, displayed a greater degree of variation with 59 distinct cell arrangements.
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Conclusions:
Evidence is provided for the clinical relevance of cleavage-stage cell arrangement in the human preimplantation embryo beyond the four-cell stage, which may improve selection techniques for day-3 transfers. This pilot study provides a strong case for further investigation into spatial biomarkers and three-dimensional morphokinetics.
IS  - 3
N1  - Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. This is an open access article under
the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
VL  - 48
KW  - 3D reconstruction; Cleavage stage; 
Embryology; Cell arrangement; 
Cell contact; Network analysis
PB  - Elsevier BV
A1  - He, Chloe
A1  - Karpavi?i?t?, Neringa
A1  - Hariharan, Rishabh
A1  - Lees, Lilly
A1  - Jacques, Céline
A1  - Ferrand, Timothy
A1  - Chambost, Jérôme
A1  - Wouters, Koen
A1  - Malmsten, Jonas
A1  - Miller, Ryan
A1  - Zaninovic, Nikica
A1  - Vasconcelos, Francisco
A1  - Hickman, Cristina
JF  - Reproductive BioMedicine Online
ER  -