Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is one of the most successful techniques of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and is mostly in use for the treatment of infertility with male factors. In this method, before injecting sperm into the intracytoplasmic of the oocyte, cumulus cells around the oocyte must be stripped to facilitate the injection process. To achieve this, both enzymatic and mechanical methods are used in embryological laboratories for denudation, which has major deficiencies, including the possibility of damaging the oocyte prior to the injection process. In this research, a microfluidic-based device is introduced for the separation of cumulus cells around the oocyte with minimum manual operations. The results prove high efficiency, and non-destructive denudation of the oocyte with the reduced amount of culture medium leads to the low-cost preparation process of oocytes. The process can also be integrated with ICSI chips under development and will be reported shortly.

Introduction: Spermatozoa from infertile men often have multiple structural and functional defects. Sperm DNA damage is one of these defects that may result from DNA fragmentation, abnormal chromatin packaging, and epigenetic defects. In this study the effect of sperm DNA damages on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) outcome is investigated.Materials and Methods: This study is an experimental research. Semen samples were obtained from 92 couples referred to Isfahan Fertility and Infertility Center for Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment. Samples were examined for concentration, morphology and motility according to the WHO guidelines. Semen samples were processed for routine ICSI and IVF using discontinuous Pure Sperm Gradients. After insemination of oocytes, the remaining semen samples were used for evaluation of global DNA methylation, protamine deficiency, and DNA fragmentation using immunostaining, Chromomycin A3 )CMA3) and Sperm Chromatin Dispersion (SCD) test. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test and correlation coefficient.Results: The percentage of CMA3 showed a significant positive correlation with percentage of normal morphology, DNA fragmentation and fertilization rate (p<0.05). However, no correlation was found between sperm normal morphology and global DNA methylation. In addition, percentage of DNA fragmentation showed a significant negative correlation with fertilization rate in ICSI patients (p= 0.03), percentage of normal morphology and global DNA methylation. However, this parameter did not significantly affect fertilization rate in IVF patients. During this study, analyzing the relation between protamine deficiency, global DNA methylation and DNA fragmentation with cleavage, embryo quality score and pregnancy was done. No significant correlations were observed between these parameters.Conclusion: Semen samples are heterogeneous population, and may contain sperm with different defects. Sperm defects such as protamine deficiency DNA fragmentation, which was assessed during this study, may affect fertilization but does not affect subsequent development and pregnancy. However, effect of these defects on future of ART children awaits further research.

Background: Worldwide, infertility affects 10%-15% of couples and most of them seek medical help including As-sisted Reproductive Technology (ART) treatments. Undergoing ART treatments create many physical and emotional burdens. This study examined the psychological consequences of infertility in Iranian infertile males and females as well as their spouses, unlike previous studies that examined mainly females with infertility.Methods: Subjects in this descriptive analytical design were recruited from the IVF Department of Mirza Koochak Khan Hospital and the Rouyesh Infertility Treatment Center of Tehran, Iran between Aug 2014 and Sep 2015. Over-all, 256 couples (64% response rate), consisting of 78 infertile male and their spouses and 50 infertile female and their spouses, were included in this research. The psychological disorders were measured by the Persian version of Symp-toms Checklist-90-Revised and Cattle Inventory.Results: Psychological disorders of infertile couples are significantly associated with increasing age, higher education, longer duration of infertility and unemployment (P<0.05). Prevalence of anxiety, depression, hypochondriasis and paranoia in infertile females and spouses of infertile males were significantly higher than husbands of infertile females (P<0.05). Obsession was more sever in infertile females was significantly greater than infertile males (P=0.01). Depression was significantly lower in infertile males than their spouses (P=0.016).Conclusion: Iranian infertile females and spouses of infertile males experienced more psychological disorders than infertile males and spouses of infertile females. These results may be due to the impact of cultural beliefs and gender roles in Iranian society. Anxiety, depression, obsession, paranoia and hypochondriasis should be addressed before any ART treatments.

Introduction: Success of assisted reproductive treatment may be dependent a variable factors such as the woman’s distress level at the term of the treatment. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of anxiety and depression of infertile women on the outcome of ART.Material and Methods: This case-control study was performed on 300 infertile women who volunteered to undergo ART in Montasariya Infertility Center of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. They consecutively invited and agreed to participate. Before down-regulation by means of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues patients were asked to complete the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory to measure anxiety, and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to measure depression and individual specifications’ questionnaires. Pregnancy tests were done 15 days after performing IUI and IVF.Results: There were no significant statistical relation between different levels of depression and the infertility treatment outcome (p=0.19). This relationship was significant between different levels of state and trait anxiety and treatment outcome (p=0.019 & p=0.016). With the increase of anxiety the positive result of pregnancy test was less probable.Conclusion: An accurate assessment of the infertile women by a team of specialists consisting of a clinical psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a gynecologist is needed so that their anxiety would be reduced and better outcome achieved.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Despite many advances have been made in the assisted reproduction techniques (ART), implantation rate after embryo transfer has not increased significantly. Therefore, this study aims to determine the factors involved in recurrent implantation failure (RIF) following ART. METHODS: In this retrospective study, 80 infertile patients with a history of at least 3 recurrent implantation failure (RIF) following assisted reproductive technology (ART) were referred to Fatemezahra Infertility Center in Babol from March 2006 to March 2013 were selected. The control group also included 80 women who became pregnant following the first IVF. Associated factors of infertility, endocrine disorder and endometriosis were recorded and their effect on RIF was assessed in both groups. FINDINGS: The mean BMI was 26. 39± 3. 63 in the case group and 26. 77± 4. 49 in the control group. Body mass index (BMI) >30 increased the risk of RIF significantly (p=0. 001). After adjusting for the effects of other possible confounding factors, the odds ratio of obesity on RIF was 1. 09(0. 91-1. 19) 95% CI which was not significant (p=0. 06). There were no significant differences among type and cause of infertility, endocrine abnormalities, uterine malformations, endometriosis and polycystic ovary with RIF. CONCLUSION: According to our findings, BMI, type and cause of infertility, endocrine disorders, uterine abnormalities, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary were not effective on recurrent implantation failure.