Polscope - Oocyte Spindle View
The Polscope available at Krishna IVF Clinic facilitates the analysis of the meiotic spindle and zona pellucida characteristics non-invasively and is a proven revolutionary tool for assessing the meiotic spindle (oocyte maturity in MII oocytes). Polscope is an advanced technology that detects spindle birefringence in live cells like oocytes.
Identification of reliable criteria for assessing oocyte development potential before fertilization is one of the most investigated areas in assisted reproduction. Attempts to establish reliable parameters indicative of oocyte development potential have involved assessing cumulus and zona morphology, cytoplasmic features such as granulation, vacuoles, and refractile bodies, and polar body features such as size and fragmentation. In addition, the meiotic spindle was investigated as a possible predictive feature for oocyte selection.
Furthermore, the fertilization rate in oocytes with visualized spindles was significantly greater than in oocytes with non-visualized spindles. A published study showed a high correlation between those oocytes without spindles, which made up about 30% of the population. They had a substantial decrease in the fertilization rate near 17%, and beyond that, the developmental potential decreased by about 25%.
The Polscope spindle view allows looking inside the oocyte and identifying the spindle. Polscope can be used primarily for ICSI so that localizing the spindle before ICSI enables one to be sure they’re not harming the spindle while injecting the sperm.
During 2007, we at Krishna IVF published a study, “Meiotic spindle and zona pellucida Characteristics as predictors of embryonic development” in Reproductive Biomedicine Online. This study concludes that Polscope, analyzing the meiotic spindle and zona pellucida characteristics non-invasively and rapidly, has proven to be a revolutionary tool for assessing the meiotic spindle.
