Infertility concerns 1 out 6 couples wishing to conceive and the worldwide use of assisted reproduction technology (ART) increases by 5 to 10% each year. Nevertheless, 10% of infertilities remain idiopathic. Understanding the window of human embryo peri-implantation development is essential to appreciate the beginning of human life but also for multiple clinical approaches such as in vitro fertilization, regenerative medicine and placenta physiopathology.

Therefore, in order to investigate the mysteries of human embryo peri-implantation development, we studied the proteome of human embryos at different stages of development using a DIA mass spectrometry approach. MS analyses were performed on pre-human implantation embryos with morula, pre-implantation blastocyst stages, and human embryos miming the post-implantation blastocyst stage at days 8 and 10. It allowed the identification of 3,070 to 4,389 proteins depending on the stage of development. We could characterize significant changes during the human embryo peri-implantation development. Interestingly, the profile of proteins involved in metabolism appears different and depends on the embryo stage, highlighting the different requirements of the human embryo during his development in the maternal organism.

Our work lead to the first proteome of the human embryo peri-implantation development including post-implantation embryo. It opens up new horizons for research not only on the human embryo, but also on stem cells and on the blastoid (pre-implantation blastocyst organoid) model. Altogether, theses models could contribute to improve the rate of in vitro fertilization success.

Keywords: DIA analysis, human embryo, peri-implantation development