Endocrine Abstracts

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most prevalent endocrine disorder of women at reproductive-age and accounts for 80% of the causes of anovulatory infertility. Despite the widely characterized reproductive, endocrine, and metabolic abnormalities, the mechanisms underlying PCOS remain unclear. Thus, it is essential to identify novel biomarkers that will allow to disclosure novel pathways involved PCOS pathophysiology, which could then be used to improve PCOS management and treatment. Although oxidative stress has been suggested to play a central role in PCOS associated reproductive dysfunction, the potential use of follicular fluid (FF) oxidative stress-related molecular profiling as reproductive function biomarker in women with PCOS, has not been widely explored. Herein, we investigated and compared the levels of lipid peroxidation (LPO) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) FF of women with and without PCOS undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF), in addition, the association between those oxidative stress markers and IVF outcomes was examined. A total of 84 women were enrolled in this study, 30 women with PCOS and 54 women ovulatory controls. FF was obtained from mature follicles at the time of oocyte retrieval. Oxidative stress was examined by measuring TAC levels by ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and by assessing LPO through quantification of malondialdehyde levels at the FF. Our results showed that TAC levels were lower in the FF of women with PCOS when compared to the non-PCOS group (1.704±0.275 vs 2.903±0.43; P<0.0001). There were no significant differences in LPO levels, although these levels tended to be higher in PCOS group compared with the non-PCOS group (19.23±1.68 vs 16.66± 1.34). No correlation was found between LPO or TAC levels and the number of oocytes retrieved and fertilized, cleavage and fertilization rate. Unravelling FF profile of women with PCOS may help the recognition of potential biomarkers that disturb normal female function leading to infertility problems. Overall, our preliminary findings suggest that oxidative stress is involved in the pathophysiology of PCOS and, therefore oxidative stress parameters may be crucial to understand the mechanisms underlying the manifestations of this syndrome.