BACKGROUND: Melatonin (MT) regulates reproductive performance as a potent antioxidant, however, its beneficial effects on oocyte development remain largely unknown, especially in human oocytes.
METHODS AND RESULTS: The collected 193 immature oocytes from the controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) cycle underwent in vitro maturation (IVM) in IVM medium contained 10 μM MT (n = 105, M-group) and no MT (n = 88, NM-group), followed by insemination and embryo culture. The results showed that the high-quality blastocyst formation rate in the M group (28.4%) was significantly higher than that in the NM group (2.0%) (P = 0.0001), and the aneuploidy rate was low (15.8%). In the subsequent clinical trials, three healthy infants were delivered. Next, single-cell RNA-seq data revealed 1026 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two groups, KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the majority of DEGs involved in oxidative phosphorylation pathway, which associated with ATP generation, was up-regulated in the M-group. Finally, confocal fluorescence staining results revealed that the mitochondrial membrane potential in the oocytes significantly increased and intracellular ROS and Ca2+ levels greatly decreased in the M-group.
DISCUSSION: Melatonin can promote the development of immature human oocytes retrieved from the COH cycle into healthy offspring by protecting mitochondrial function.