The Effect of Extremely Low Frequency Pulsed Electromagnetic Field on In Vitro Fertilization Success Rate in N MRI Mice

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

2 Department of Medical Physics, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran

4 4Biochemistry of Nutrition Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Objective
The effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) on reproduction systems have been widely debated. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether low frequency EMF could ameliorate the in vitro fertilization success rate in Naval medical research institute (NMRI) Mice. Materials and Methods: In this randomized comparative animal study, ten NMRI mice were randomly divided into 2 equal groups (control and experimental). 10 IU of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) was injected intraperitoneally to both groups in order to stimulate ovulating, and ovums were then aspirated and kept in KSOM (modified version of sequential simplex optimization medium with a higher K+ concentration) culture medium. Metaphase II ovums were separated, and sperms obtained by "swim out" method were added to metaphase II ovums in the culture medium. The experimental group was exposed to 1.3 millitesla pulsed electromagnetic field at 4 kilohertz frequency for 5 hours. To assess the efficacy, we considered the identification of two-pronuclear zygote (2PN) under microscope as fertilizing criterion. Results: Total number of collected ovums in the control and experimental groups was 191 and 173, respectively, from which 58 (30.05%) and 52 (30.36%) ovums were collected from metaphase II, respectively. In vitro fertilization (IVF) success rate was 77% in extremely low frequency- pulsed electromagnetic field (ELFPEMF) for exposed group (experimental), whereas the rate was 68% for control group. Conclusion: Despite increased percentile of IVF success rate in exposed group, there was no statistically significant difference between 2 groups, but this hypothesis has still been stated as a question. Further studies with larger sample sizes and different EMF designs are suggested.

Keywords

Cell Journal (Yakhteh)
Volume 15, Issue 4
November 2013
Pages 310-315

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics