Dehydroepiandrosterone Maintain Mitochondrial Quality of Cumulus Cells in Poor Ovarian Responders

Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Dehydroepiandrosterone; Poor Responders

Treatments: Dietary Supplement: dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03438812

VGHKS14-CT10-16

Details and patient eligibility

About

To investigate whether the DHEA supplementation could improve mitochondrial quality in poor ovarian responders

Full description

Women who underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment participated, including normal ovarian responders (NORs) and poor ovarian responders (PORs). PORs were assigned to receive DHEA supplementation or not before the IVF cycle. For all patients, cumulus cells (CCs) were obtained after oocyte retrieval. In the CCs, mRNA expression of mitochondria-related genes was measured. To compare the mRNA expression of mitochondria-related genes in the CCs among the three groups.

Enrollment: 66 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 25 to 45 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Poor ovarian responders met the Bologna criteria, having at least two of the three following features: (1) advanced maternal age (≥ 40 years) or any other risk factor for POR, (2) a previous POR (≤ 3 oocytes with a conventional stimulation protocol), and (3) an abnormal ovarian reserve test. An abnormal ovarian reserve test was defined as antral follicle counts (AFC) < 5 or anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) < 1 ng/mL in this study.
• Normal ovarian responders met the following criteria: (1) AFCs ≥ 5 or AMH ≥ 1 ng/mL and (2) the number of retrieved oocytes was between 5 and 15.

Exclusion criteria

• previous oophorectomy
• exposure to cytotoxic or pelvic irradiation for malignancy
• positive screening for recurrent pregnancy loss (chromosome mapping, antinuclear antibodies, extractable nuclear antigens, antiphospholipid antibodies, thrombophilic screening)
• any other sensitizing or ovarian stimulating therapy during the previous 3 months

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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66 participants in 3 patient groups

Poor ovarian responders with DHEA

Experimental group

Description:

Women who meet the Bologna criteria receive dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA, 90 mg daily for two months at least) supplementation prior to the IVF cycle.

Treatment:

Dietary Supplement: dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)

Poor ovarian responders

No Intervention group

Description:

Women who meet the Bologna criteria undergo the IVF cycle without pretreatment with DHEA

Normal ovarian responders

No Intervention group

Description:

Women who do not meet the Bologna criteria and have normal ovarian response to ovarian stimulation.