Comparison of Embryo Development between Intracytoplasmic and Piezo-Assisted Sperm Injection after Treating Mouse Sperms by Ca Ionophore

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and Piezo-assisted sperm injection after pretreatment with calcium ionophore (CaI) on the mouse embryo development. Methods: In this study, the conventional ICSI and Piezo-ICSI procedures were used. The efficacy of the methods was examined after mouse matured oocytes were fertilized with or without CaItreated sperms. Results: Piezo-ICSI demonstrated significantly more favorable results, with a fertilization rate of 64% (conventional ICSI: 42%, P<0.001) and a cleavage rate of 73% (conventional ICSI: 58%, P<0.05). When the Piezo-ICSI procedure was performed with CaI-pretreated sperms, the cleavage rate significantly increased (92% vs. 73%, P<0.05). However, the fertilization rate did not change significantly (64% vs. 56%). Conclusion: The Piezo-ICSI accompanies with CaI-treated sperms is more efficient than the conventional ICSI method for fertilizing and thus obtaining more mouse embryos. Iran. Biomed. J. 11 (4): 245-250, 2007