SWATHHM-Based Metabolomics of Follicular Fluid in Patients Shows That Progesterone Adversely Affects Oocyte Quality

Objective. We reveal the relationship between progesterone level in follicular fluid and oocyte quality based on sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment-ion spectra (SWATH (TM)), a powerful high-resolution mass spectrometric data independent acquisition technique. Method. Follicular fluid samples were collected from 22 subjects (the level of progesterone > 1.5 ng/mL) of progesterone group, as well as from 22 subjects (the level of progesterone < 1.5 ng/mL) of control group, and analyzed using UPLC-Q-TOF. All methods were performed in accordance with ISO 9001:2008. Novel SWATH acquisition mode on an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid triple quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (with resolving power 20,000-40,000) was investigated for the analysis of human follicular fluid. The principal component variable grouping detects intersample variable correlation and groups variables with similar profiles which simplifies interpretation and highlights related ions and fragments. It can also extract product ion spectra from the data collected by fragmenting a wide precursor ion window. Results. Follicular fluid from the two groups differed with respect to five metabolites. Follicular fluid from the progesterone group contained elevated levels of 8-hydroxyguanosine and 4-hydroxynonenal and reduced levels of ATP, estradiol, and L-carnitine. The increased progesterone level on the day of HCG injection could negatively impact oocyte quality, thus reducing the pregnancy rate of IVF patients.