Author(s)

Muhammad Kayanja^1,2*, Moses Tiri¹, Mark Muyigo¹, Davis Rujumba¹, Nyiro Brian³, Kalule Francis^4,5

¹Neogenesis Fertility Centre, Kampala, Uganda.
²IVI Valencia, Valecia, Spain.
³College of Health Sciences, Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology, Makerere University, Makerere, Uganda.
⁴Zoetis, ALPHA Plus Initiative, Zaventum, Belgium.
⁵Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.

The markers of oocyte quality have remained a major controversy in the field of embryology due to the subjectivity of the different methods of oocyte assessment. Various scholars use oocyte quality and oocyte competence interchangeably. Oocyte quality can be defined as the overall health of an oocyte whereas oocyte competence refers to the ability of an oocyte to be fertilized and develop into a healthy embryo. Diminished oocyte quality is believed to be a result of alterations in oocyte growth and maturation processes that stem from several pelvic and systemic factors before and after oocyte retrieval. In this review, we focus on the morphological and nonmorphological markers of oocyte quality. Strict restrictions that limit the number of oocytes fertilized in various countries have triggered researchers around the world to come up with the most appropriate and noninvasive markers that enhance oocyte selection and optimize IVF outcomes. PubMed, Google Scholar, and the Cochrane Library were used to search for peer-reviewed, original articles about oocyte quality markers. The review was written in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Morphological markers are commonly used, but they are subjective, and no single marker can be used exclusively to predict oocyte competence and subsequent embryonic development potential. Furthermore, transcriptomics of differentially expressed genes in cumulus cells and assessment of metabolomics and other contents of follicular fluid have shown greater precision. However, their specificity to the different quality determinants needs further research.

Oocyte Quality, Oocyte Competence, Metabolomics, Transcriptomics, Oocyte Morphology

Kayanja, M. , Tiri, M. , Muyigo, M. , Rujumba, D. , Brian, N. and Francis, K. (2024) Markers of Oocyte Quality to Enhance Human IVF Outcomes: A Bibliographic Review. Open Journal of Internal Medicine, 14, 102-121. doi: 10.4236/ojim.2024.141010.