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The Nature of Aneuploidy - Scott1571
The Nature of Aneuploidy - Scott1571
The Nature of Aneuploidy - Scott1571
Objective: To determine the relationship between the age of the female partner and the prevalence and nature of human embryonic
aneuploidy.
Design: Retrospective.
Setting: Academic.
Patient(s): Trophectoderm biopsies.
Intervention(s): Comprehensive chromosomal screening performed on patients with blastocysts available for biopsy.
Main Outcome Measure(s): Evaluation of the impact of maternal age on the prevalence of aneuploidy, the probability of having no
euploid embryos within a cohort, the complexity of aneuploidy as gauged by the number of aneuploid chromosomes, and the trisomy/
monosomy ratio.
Result(s): Aneuploidy increased predictably after 26 years of age. A slightly increased prevalence was noted at younger ages, with
>40% aneuploidy in women 23 years and under. The no euploid embryo rate was lowest (2% to 6%) in women aged 26 to 37, was
33% at age 42, and was 53% at age 44. Among the biopsies with aneuploidy, 64% involved a single chromosome, 20% two chromo-
somes, and 16% three chromosomes, with the proportion of more complex aneuploidy increasing with age. Finally, the trisomy/mono-
somy ratio approximated 1 and increased minimally with age.
Conclusion(s): The lowest risk for embryonic aneuploidy was between ages 26 and 30. Both younger and older age groups had higher
rates of aneuploidy and an increased risk for more complex aneuploidies. The overall risk did not
measurably change after age 43. Trisomies and monosomies are equally prevalent. (Fertil SterilÒ
2014;101:656–63. Ó2014 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.) Use your smartphone
Key Words: Comprehensive chromosomal screening, embryonic aneuploidy, IVF, to scan this QR code
preimplantation genetic screening, trophectoderm biopsy and connect to the
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A
dvances in clinical and labo-
Received August 24, 2013; revised October 31, 2013; accepted November 7, 2013; published online ratory practice have resulted
December 17, 2013.
J.M.F. has nothing to disclose. E.J.F. has nothing to disclose. K.H.H. has nothing to disclose. M.D.W. has
in steady improvements in in
nothing to disclose. K.M.U. has nothing to disclose. N.R.T. has nothing to disclose. R.T.S. has vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes
nothing to disclose. over the last two decades. Although
Reprint requests: Jason M. Franasiak, M.D., RMA of New Jersey, 140 Allen Road, Basking Ridge, New
Jersey 07920 (E-mail: jfranasiak@rmanj.com). the enhanced outcomes are excellent
and provide infertile couples with
Fertility and Sterility® Vol. 101, No. 3, March 2014 0015-0282/$36.00
Copyright ©2014 American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Published by Elsevier Inc.
outstanding opportunities to build
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2013.11.004 their families, the reality is that IVF
remains an inefficient process. Evaluation of the most To date, there has not been a systematic report of CCS
recent Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies results in a large number of embryos from a general IVF pop-
(SART)/U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ulation. Our study determined the relationship between
(CDC) data reveal that approximately 17% of fresh embryos maternal age and the aneuploidy rate, the no-euploid embryo
deemed of sufficient quality to merit transfer actually prog- rate per cohort, the complexity of encountered aneuploid
ress to clinical pregnancy (1). errors, and the trisomy/monosomy ratio.
The inefficiency in IVF may result from many factors,
but clearly one major issue is the age-related rate of aneu- MATERIALS AND METHODS
ploidy (2). Aneuploidy is associated with maternal age and Population
is only subtly related to the morphologic appearance of the
embryo (3). As such, a real percentage of even the ‘‘most The embryos undergoing CCS of trophectoderm biopsies
ideal’’ embryos selected for transfer are going to be aneu- that were submitted to the Reproductive Medicine Associ-
ploid and have little if any meaningful reproductive poten- ates (RMA) genetics laboratory for analysis were selected
tial (4). for the study. In our center, all patients are offered
The development of validated testing platforms capable aneuploidy screening as a means to increase pregnancy
of analyzing all 24 chromosomes has empowered clinicians, rates, decrease loss rates, and decrease transfer order. All bi-
laboratorians, and scientists to assess the ploidy status of opsies were reviewed, and the following information was
embryos before selection for transfer (5, 6). Accurate collected: [1] the result of the genetic analysis, [2] the age
diagnoses combined with the substantively enhanced safety of the woman producing the oocyte that resulted in the
attained with trophectoderm biopsy (7) at the blastocyst embryo being biopsied, and [3] the IVF program from which
stage have resulted in meaningfully increased implantation the biopsy was submitted. There were no inclusion or exclu-
and delivery rates (4, 8). sion criteria beyond having those pieces of information
These studies provide class I data for enhanced outcomes, available. The indications for CCS were categorized as fam-
but they apply to well-defined populations, with data ily balancing, single-gene cases, recurrent pregnancy loss,
condensed into relatively large age ranges. Clinical applica- and routine infertility care. Expanded blastocysts, equiva-
tion of these technologies requires specific counseling of in- lent to Gardner blastocele expansion score of 3 to 6, are bio-
dividuals from the general IVF population. Although an psied for CCS.
individuals' personal prognosis will be influenced by multiple
factors, data on comprehensive chromosomal screening (CCS) Assays
results from the general population may be useful. Counseling The trophectoderm biopsy samples were placed into lysis
regarding CCS generally occurs in two settings: before elect- buffer using a previously established protocol and were
ing to proceed with CCS and again after the results of the an- then submitted for evaluation. The samples were analyzed
alyses of their cohort are available. via quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) or single-
Before initiating treatment, counseling typically includes nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array using an established
at least three general considerations. First is the safety of the 24-chromosome assay that has been specifically validated
procedure itself. That issue has been addressed, and the safety for trophectoderm biopsies (5, 6). The results of each biopsy
of trophectoderm biopsy is reasonably established. The other were initially categorized as being euploid or aneuploid.
two issues are what proportion of a patient's embryos are Among those embryos that were aneuploid, they were
likely to be aneuploid, and what is the probability that all of further categorized as having a single chromosome
her embryos will be aneuploid, leaving nothing available involved, two chromosomes involved, or three or more
for transfer? These answers may need to be adjusted for aneuploid chromosomes. Finally, the aneuploid result was
each individual's circumstances, but age-specific data are further characterized as being either monosomic or trisomic.
most helpful. In the event that there were two or more abnormalities with
After the results of the CCS analysis are available, there one chromosome being monosomic and another being
may be questions of whether those results are generally trisomic, the embryo was considered both monosomic and
consistent with those of a woman's age-controlled peers. In trisomic.
addition to the overall rate of aneuploidy, it is possible to
consider the nature of the aneuploid errors that are identified.
This would include the complexity of the errors (i.e., did they Data Analysis
involve a single chromosome, two chromosomes, or three or The initial analysis was simply to determine the percentage of
more chromosomes?). Also worthy of consideration is the biopsy samples that were euploid and the number that were
overall ratio of trisomies to monosomies. The prognostic aneuploid relative to the age of the woman producing the
values of these factors for a single individual remain to be oocyte. The data were stratified into single years of age. Sub-
examined in detail, but they do provide some insight into sequently, the data were grouped into the age groups used for
the nature of the errors that that cohort of the embryo expe- reporting by SART, with the exception of the <35-years age
rienced. They may also be important for the clinician and group. Given the large number of years within that age group,
embryologist when evaluating the performance of the assay the data were further divided into those oocytes where the
being used for CCS across a larger number of embryos from female was younger than 26 years, 26 to 30 years of age, or
multiple patients within their laboratory. 31 to 34 years of age.
The aneuploidy rates across age groups were compared In all cases, an alpha error >.05 was considered statisti-
using contingency table analyses. Additionally, linear regres- cally significant. The retrospective analysis of data was
sion was used to examine the relationship between age and approved by the institutional review board.
the proportion of embryos that were aneuploid.
The relationship between age and the probability that no
RESULTS
euploid embryos would be available for transfer was exam-
Demographics
ined by first calculating that probability for each year of
maternal age. The number of no-euploid cohorts was divided There were 15,169 CCS results obtained from 2,701 patients in
by the total number of cohorts examined for each year of 3,392 cycles. There were 9,001 euploid results and 6,168
age. The no-euploid rate was compared among age groups aneuploid results from these samples. The difference in the
by contingency table analyses, and the overall relationship number of aneuploid chromosomes and the number of aneu-
between age and risk for a no-euploid cohort was examined ploid biopsy samples reflects the fact that some samples were
by regression. aneuploid for more than one chromosome (as will be
The results of all trophectoderm biopsies were then strat- described). Ages of the female partners ranged from 22 to
ified based on the number of errors that were documented in 49 years. The numbers of individuals at each age, the mean
the genetic analysis. The results were labeled as 0 (euploidy), 1 and standard error for the number of oocytes retrieved, and
(single aneuploidy), 2 (double aneuploidy), or 3 or more (com- the number of euploid and aneuploid samples for each age
plex aneuploidy). These results were stratified by individual are presented in Table 1.
years and by age groups and then were compared with contin- The no-result rate from embryo biopsies was 2.8%. The
gency table and regression analyses. mean, median, minimum, and maximum number of blasto-
Next, aneuploid results for each age were divided into cysts biopsied according to patient age is detailed in
those which that found either a monosomy or a trisomy. These Figure 1A. In nearly all age groups, the minimum number
were similarly compared with contingency table and regres- biopsied was one blastocyst, and the median number ex-
sion analyses. Finally, the overall aneuploidy rate within ceeded five blastocysts in only patients aged 22, 24, 28,
age groups was compared between the referring centers via and 30 years. Figure 1B further details the number of blasto-
contingency table analyses. cysts per individual case and correlates this with the
TABLE 1
Distribution of samples evaluated relative to the age of the female partner and the ensuing comprehensive chromosomal screening results.
Euploid Aneuploid
Oocytes retrieved Cohorts of embryos No. of biopsies Percentage Percentage
Age (y) (m ± SEM) evaluated (n) evaluated (n) n of total n of total
22 23.5 3.5 9 72 40 55.6 32 44.4
23 19.3 1.7 12 76 45 59.2 31 40.8
24 21.5 2.1 13 79 57 72.2 22 27.8
25 12.9 1.1 17 90 50 55.6 40 44.4
26 15.1 1.1 29 175 132 75.4 43 24.6
27 16.2 þ 0.6 36 240 175 72.9 65 27.1
28 13.0 0.7 57 335 259 77.3 76 22.7
29 13.9 0.4 106 585 464 79.3 121 20.7
30 12.9 0.4 126 802 616 76.8 186 23.2
31 13.9 0.3 164 862 595 69.0 267 31.0
32 11.1 0.2 193 1,023 705 68.9 318 31.1
33 13.9 0.4 231 1,324 913 69.0 411 31.0
34 13.7 0.4 221 1,156 794 68.7 362 31.3
35 11.6 0.3 226 1,222 800 65.5 422 34.5
36 12.8 0.3 267 1,284 828 64.5 456 35.5
37 10.1 0.3 257 1,153 662 57.4 491 42.6
38 8.7 0.2 280 1,123 585 52.1 538 47.9
39 10.5 0.2 272 1,008 475 47.1 533 52.9
40 11.2 0.3 249 953 398 41.8 555 58.2
41 9.2 0.3 234 750 233 31.1 517 68.9
42 8.7 0.2 150 453 113 24.9 340 75.1
43 6.0 0.3 79 217 36 16.6 181 83.4
44 5.7 0.2 41 85 10 11.8 75 88.2
45 8.0 0.4 22 39 4 15.7 35 84.3
46 11.8 0.5 4 43 12 27.9 31 72.1
47 6.3 0.3 4 17 0 0.0 17 100.0
48 2 1 1 0 0.0 1 100.0
49 4 1 2 0 0.0 2 100.0
Total 3,301 15,169 9,001 6,168
Franasiak. Aneuploidy versus age. Fertil Steril 2014.
FIGURE 1
Case demographics. (A) The mean, median, minimum, and maximum number of blastocysts biopsied according to patient age. In nearly all age
groups, the minimum number biopsied was one blastocyst, and the median number exceeded five blastocysts in only patients aged 22, 24, 28,
and 30 years. (B) The number of blastocysts per individual case. In 50% of the cases, there were three or fewer blastocysts available for biopsy,
and 20% of the patients had only a single blastocyst available for biopsy.
Franasiak. Aneuploidy versus age. Fertil Steril 2014.
proportion of cases that had that number of blastocysts 43 years and older and represented 16.4% of cases. Family
available for biopsy. Importantly for generalizability, 50% balancing represented a minority of cases for all age groups
of the cases had three or fewer blastocysts available for bi- as did single-gene cases, with the exception of the younger
opsy. There were a number of low responders included in than age 26 patients (as indicated earlier). Overall, general
the evaluation, with 20% of patients having only a single infertility care represented 85.0% of cases, followed by recur-
blastocyst available for biopsy. rent pregnancy loss at 11.0%, single-gene cases at 3.1%, and
The indications for CCS are included in Supplemental family balancing at 0.9%.
Figure 1 by age group and overall. In patients under age 26,
the most common indication was routine infertility care
(61.4%), followed by single-gene cases (36.4%) and recurrent Age Versus Aneuploidy
pregnancy loss (2.3%). For the remainder of the age groups, The prevalence of aneuploidy for each age is presented in
general infertility represented nearly 80% or more of the Figure 2A. As expected, the prevalence of aneuploidy rose
cases. Recurrent loss as an indication was highest in patients steadily with age (P<1*106). Although it is possible to
FIGURE 2
Prevalence of aneuploidy. (A) The prevalence of aneuploidy relative to the age of the female partner demonstrates the lowest risk in women from
their middle to late twenties, with significantly higher rates in embryos obtained from both younger and older women (P<1*106). The relationship
between age and the rate of aneuploidy is a best fit at the 5th degree polynomial (regression line shown). (B) The relationship between maternal age
and the probability that no euploid blastocysts will be available within a single cohort demonstrates a uniformly low risk between the maternal ages
of 26 and 37 years. Higher risks are present in younger and older patients (P<.0003 or less).
Franasiak. Aneuploidy versus age. Fertil Steril 2014.
compare all the age groups to each other, there are an enor- (Age)3 þ 0.007451 * (Age)4 0.000044692 * (Age)5]. The rela-
mous number of possible comparisons; given the large sample tionship was statistically significant (P<1*106). This polyno-
size, there are an enormous number of statistically significant mial regression line is superimposed on the graph of
differences. More important is to the see the change in the prev- aneuploidy vs. age in Figure 2A.
alence of aneuploidy and to provide a point estimate for each When combining the data into age ranges, the prevalence
and every age. The relationship between aneuploidy and age of aneuploidy was lowest between the ages of 26 and 30. Sur-
was best predicted by a fifth order polynomial: [Percent aneu- prisingly, the prevalence was higher in women younger than
ploid ¼ 1,965 278.9 * Age þ 16.41 * (Age)2 0.4922 * 26 years of age, with a prevalence of over 40% in women 22
FIGURE 3
Nature of aneuploidy. (A) The complexity of the aneuploidies that occur (the number of aneuploid chromosomes in a given trophectoderm sample)
is impacted by maternal age (P<1*106). Increasing age results not only in an increase in the proportion of embryos that are aneuploid but also an
increase in the proportion of those aneuploid embryos that will have more than one aneuploid chromosome. (B) The ratio of trisomies to
monosomies approximates 1 throughout reproductive life, and absolute variation is low at all ages. Some variation does exist with younger
patients, who have disproportionally greater monosomies, and older patients, who have disproportionate trisomies (P<.009).
Franasiak. Aneuploidy versus age. Fertil Steril 2014.
When reviewing results of CCS for a patient, it is impor- younger than 26 years of age. Indeed, the rates of aneuploidy
tant to evaluate the results in light of age-controlled peers. reached >40% at age 25, and the no-euploid embryo rate was
Indeed, the evaluation of the prevalence across age groups nearly one-third at age 22, nearly the same as for a patient 42
yielded both predictable and surprising data. Predictably, years of age. It should be noted that this patient population
both the aneuploid rate and the no-euploid embryo rate was 36% single-gene cases and 61% part of routine care in
rose in a mathematically predictable way with age. Surpris- an effort to increase pregnancy rates, decrease loss rates,
ingly, the exception to this in both cases was the patients and decrease transfer order. This information is not only
helpful in counseling but sheds some light on the biology of by detailing the prevalence of aneuploidy across specific
aneuploidy in the reproductive system. chromosomes, which is an area of active study at our center.
In addition to the bimodal distribution of aneuploidy, the
rates of single, dual, and multiple errors (11) as well as the
ratio of trisomy/monosomy also help create a clearer picture REFERENCES
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SUPPLEMENTAL FIGURE 1
Indications for comprehensive chromosomal screening. The indications were categorized as family balancing, general infertility care, recurrent
pregnancy loss, and single gene cases. Our center offers CCS as routine care, and thus this represented the overwhelming majority of cases in
each age group as well as overall. Single-gene cases were higher in patients under age 26 years. Otherwise, the other indications represent a
minority of cases, so these results are generalizable to the general IVF population.
Franasiak. Aneuploidy versus age. Fertil Steril 2014.