Co-culture with granulosa cells does not increase the fertilization rate in couples with previous fertilization...

Ten couples included in our in-vitro fertilization programme, selected because of one of more previous total fertilization failures or a low fertilization rate (< 20%), were entered in an experimental protocol of egg insemination on autologous granulosa cells. Half the oocytes from each patient were randomly assigned to either a control or a co-culture group. We observed no difference in the fertilization rate between the control (16.2%) and co-culture groups (12.1%). Only two couples benefited from this technique since fertilization was obtained only in co-culture. The poor efficiency of this protocol led us to propose the use of sperm micro-injection if all classical attempts to improve fertilization were unsuccessful.