Development of a well-of-the-well system-based embryo culture plate with an oxygen sensing photoluminescent probe

In this study, we developed a well-of-the-well (WOW) system-based embryo culture plate with an oxygen sensing photoluminescent probe (OSPP). This system can incubate single embryos in an array of microwells and continuously and non-invasively monitor their morphology by microscopy and respiration metabolic activity based on the quenching of photoexcited platinum octaethylporphyrin by oxygen. Although the development rate to the blastocyst stage obtained in the WOW embryo culture plate with the OSPP was about 11% lower than that obtained with the conventional drop culture method because of the absence of paracrine effects due to the size of the microwells, the average cell number in the embryo at the blastocyst stage was not significantly different between the two culture systems. However, the present embryo culture plate enabled the selection and harvest of high quality blastocysts by monitoring both their morphology and their oxygen consumption rate, making it suitable for the high throughput evaluation of embryos.