Observational studyPloS one2016
The Relationship between Cell Number, Division Behavior and Developmental Potential of Cleavage Stage Human Embryos: A Time-Lapse Study.
Observational study in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Molecular Drivers of Developmental Arrest in the Human Preimplantation Embryo: A Systematic Review and Critical Analysis Leading to Mapping Future Research.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Pooled it
- "Old and new" frontiers in embryo viability assessment: current practices and introduction of emerging approaches.Biology of reproduction · 2026Review
- Developmental trajectories from day 2 to day 3 refine ranking and selection of cleavage-stage embryos.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2026Article
- Impact of Day-3 embryo cell number on pregnancy, obstetric and perinatal outcomes in frozen-thawed single blastocyst transfer cycles.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Commentary: Association between pretransfer cleavage-stage blastomere dynamics and pregnancy outcomes in fresh single embryo transfer cycles: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Delayed Second Cell Cleavage in Human Early Embryo Is Associated With Adverse Developmental Competence and Pregnancy Outcomes, Even If the Third Cleavage Completes on Time.Maternal-fetal medicine (Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.) · 2026Article
- Impact of rapidly cleaving embryos on blastocyst formation and single-blastocyst transfer outcomes.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Effect of day 3 cell number on the pregnancy and neonatal outcomes of vitrified-warmed single blastocyst transfer.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Development and validation of machine learning models for predicting blastocyst yield in IVF cycles.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Istanbul consensus update: a revised ESHRE/ALPHA consensus on oocyte and embryo static and dynamic morphological assessment†,‡.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Association between pretransfer cleavage-stage blastomere dynamics and pregnancy outcomes in fresh single embryo transfer cycles: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Effect of day 3 embryo cell number on the pregnancy and neonatal outcomes of day 4 single embryo transfer from fresh cycles.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Effect of Day 3 cell number on the live birth rate of vitrified-warmed Day 5 single blastocyst transfer in young women.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Developmental competence and neonatal outcomes of nonpronuclear zygotes following single vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfers using propensity score matching analysis.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2024Article
- Development and validation of a clinical prediction model for blastocyst formation during IVF/ICSI-ET.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- Metabolic Signature of Energy Metabolism Alterations and Excess Nitric Oxide Production in Culture Media Correlate with Low Human Embryo Quality and Unsuccessful Pregnancy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- The influence of day 3 embryo cell number on the clinical pregnancy and live birth rates of day 5 single blastocyst transfer from frozen embryo transfer cycles.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- Increased blastomere number is associated with higher live birth rate in day 3 embryo transfer.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- Ultralow Oxygen Tension (2%) Is Beneficial for Blastocyst Formation of In Vitro Human Low-Quality Embryo Culture.BioMed research international · 2022Article
- A mouse-specific retrotransposon drives a conserved Cdk2ap1 isoform essential for development.Cell · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Day 3 cleavage embryo transfer is routine in many assisted reproductive technology centers today. Embryos are usually selected according to cell number, cell symmetry and fragmentation for transfer. Many studies have showed the relationship between cell number and embryo developmental potential. However, there is limited understanding of embryo division behavior and their association with embryo cell number and developmental potential. A retrospective and observational study was conducted to investigate how different division behaviors affect cell number and developmental potential of day 3 embryos by time-lapse imaging. Based on cell number at day 3, the embryos (from 104 IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment cycles, n = 799) were classified as follows: less than 5 cells (< 5C; n = 111); 5-6 cells (5-6C; n = 97); 7-8 cells (7-8C; n = 442), 9-10 cells (9-10C; n = 107) and more than 10 cells (>10C; n = 42). Division behavior, morphokinetic parameters and blastocyst formation rate were analyzed in 5 groups of day 3 embryos with different cell numbers. In <5C and 5-6C embryos, fragmentation (FR; 62.2% and 30.9%, respectively) was the main cause for low cell number. The majority of 7-8C embryos exhibited obvious normal behaviors (NB; 85.7%) during development. However, the incidence of DC in 9-10C and >10C embryos increased compared to 7-8C embryos (45.8%, 33.3% vs. 11.1%, respectively). In ≥5C embryos, FR and DC significantly reduced developmental potential, whereas <5C embryos showed little potential irrespective of division behaviors. In NB embryos, the blastocyst formation rate increased with cell number from 7.4% (<5C) to 89.3% (>10C). In NB embryos, the cell cycle elongation or shortening was the main cause for abnormally low or high cell number, respectively. After excluding embryos with abnormal division behaviors, the developmental potential, implantation rate and live birth rate of day 3 embryos increased with cell number.
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