Can an Automated Dish Preparation System Deliver Consistent Dish Characteristics, Maintain Acceptable Media pH, and Avoid Embryotoxic Effects?
Acosta Gomez et al., American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) 2025 Scientific Congress & Expo
Objective
To evaluate a novel automated embryo culture dish preparation system (DISH) for consistency, pH stability, and embryotoxicity, establishing its suitability for human embryo culture.
Materials and Methods
The automated system consisted of robotic arms (Mecademic, Canada; Universal Robots, Denmark), automated pipetting (Sartorius AG, Germany), an integrated laser labeling system (Keyence, USA), and a fan filter unit (Terra Universal, USA) and was developed in-house. All experiments used 35 mm Time Lapse BIRR dishes (Birr Biosciences, The Netherlands), CSC medium (Fujifilm Irvine, USA) and heavy oil overlay (Kitazato, Japan).
Dishes prepared by DISH were tested for weight stability, bubble formation, and preparation time. pH was measured in 45 dishes after 16 and 24 hours of incubation in a CO2 incubator (LAQUAtwin, Horiba, Japan). Mouse embryo assays (three replicates of 10-11 embryos each) were conducted to test the impact of dish laser labelling, dish environment, and robotic dish preparation on embryo development. Fisher's Exact test was used to compare proportions and Mann–Whitney U test to evaluate blastocyst cell counts (α=0.05).
Results
Embryo culture dishes prepared by DISH showed a 7.3% weight coefficient variation and no bubble formation. pH remained within an acceptable range at 16 hours (7.28 ± 0.06) and 24 hours (7.31 ± 0.06), indicating that the mean preparation time of 37.9 s did not significantly affect pH.
Mouse embryo assays revealed no significant differences in blastocyst formation between automated and manually prepared embryo culture dishes (82.7% [62/75] vs. 82.4% [42/51]; P = 1.00), laser marking or manual dish labelling (100% [21/21] vs. 90.5% [19/21]; P = 0.49), or overnight exposure of culture media to the C:DISH environment (84.4% [27/32] vs. 75.0% [24/32]; P = 0.54).
Blastocyst cell counts in experimental groups were comparable or higher than controls for robotic preparation (124.9 ± 28.9 vs. 136.6 ± 27.8; P = 0.08), laser marking (122.4 ± 19.9 vs. 118.2 ± 19.1; P = 0.50), and environment testing (132.2 ± 37.7 vs. 119.3 ± 26.7; P = 0.03).
Conclusions
The automated system demonstrated safety and efficacy for embryo culture dish preparation with consistent dish characteristics, stable pH, and no embryotoxicity. Human oversight remains necessary, and calibration-related pipetting errors may arise, although these were not observed here. Mouse embryo models cannot fully predict human embryo behavior, thus impact on human embryo quality requires additional investigation. Further research using human embryos and laboratory outcome data is needed to confirm system safety and effectiveness.
Impact Statement
Automated dish preparation can standardize processes, increase efficiency, and reduce variability in IVF laboratories. These validation results suggest potential benefits in quality control and scalability, with the system offering a viable solution to lighten the workload in embryology laboratories while maintaining or potentially improving culture conditions.
Support
This work was fully soponsored by a private company.