The effects of declining air quality on reproductive outcomes after IVF are variable, cycle-dependent and complex, though increased NO(2) is consistently associated with lower live birth rates. Our findings are limited by the lack of direct measure of pollutants at homes and lab sites.

We injected a fluorescent lineage tracer (Texas Red-lysine-dextran) into individual blastomeres of donated human diploid 2- to 8-cell pre-embryos and cultured them to blastocysts. Once pre-embryos reached the expanded blastocyst stage, they were fixed and examined in a scanning confocal microscope to identify the location of fluorescent tracer. In successfully injected pre-embryos that developed to expanded blastocysts, we found that randomly injected blastomeres formed both trophectoderm (TE) and inner cell mass (ICM). More labelled progeny were found in TE than in ICM. Our results show that individual early blastomeres are not yet committed to form either TE or ICM but instead can form both rudiments.

OBJECTIVE: Cytokines are potential biomarkers of immune response in the lower female genital tract. This study compares cytokines between the vagina and endometrium, two portals of entry for infectious organisms.DESIGN: Randomized, assessor-blinded cross-over trial. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighteen reproductive-aged women underwent follicular phase vaginal lavage (VL) and endometrial lavage (EL) as part of a clinical trial examining the impact of vaginal gels on the vagina and endometrium. Eight pro-inflammatory cytokines (Il-1b, Il-6, Il-8, MCP-1, MIP-1a, MIP-1b, RANTES, and TNF-a and three anti-inflammatory cytokines (Il-1ra, Il-10, Slp-1) were assayed in baseline VL and EL specimens (RayBio Human Cytokines Array). Absolute cytokine levels were compared between VL and EL by signrank tests.RESULTS: Multiple cytokines differed between the vagina and endometrium. Of pro-inflammatory cytokines, Il-1b (p¼0.001) was significantly higher, while RANTES (p<0.001) was significantly lower in the vagina. Of anti-inflammatory markers, Il-1ra (p<0.001) was higher, while Il-10 (p<0.001) and Slp-1 (p<0.001) were significantly lower in the vagina than in the endometrium.CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to compare immune response between the human vagina and endometrium using inflammatory cytokines. Our findings suggest that immune response varies by different sites of the lower reproductive tract. However, we see no common trend in regard to pro-and anti-inflammatory cytokines between these sites. It is unknown whether these differences reflect independent immune responses at the two sites, or, alternatively, vaginal immune responses are a product of mixed vaginal and endometrial immune response.

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