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Limited information is available on the balance state of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in patients with recurrent implantation failure (RIF). This study assessed the pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in plasma of 34 patients with RIF, compared with those of 25 women with a successful pregnancy in the first IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET) cycle. The IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-4 concentrations were higher, whereas the TGF-β1 concentration was lower in the RIF group compared with the control group. Furthermore, the ratios of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ/IL-4, IFN-γ/IL-10, IFN-γ/TGF-β1, IL-6/IL-10, IL-6/TGF-β1, IL-1β/TGF-β1 and TNF-α/TGF-β1 were higher in the RIF group (all P < 0.01). The results suggested a shift toward a pro-inflammatory state in peripheral blood of the patients with RIF.

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The results of this study provide novel evidence supporting a role of hCG in regulating the differentiation of peripheral FOXP3 Tregs. The alterations of circulating Tregs may positively affect the pregnancy outcomes of patients with a history of RIF.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of quarter zona-pellucida (ZP) opening by laser-assisted hatching (QLAH) on the clinical outcomes following transfer of vitrified-warmed blastocysts developed from low-grade cleavage-stage embryos in patients with all high-grade and fair-grade cleavage-stage embryos transferred without achieving pregnancy. Patients were randomized into two groups: QLAH (n=101) and control (n=102). The implantation and clinical pregnancy rates were significantly higher in the QLAH group compared with the control group (P=0.021 and P=0.034, respectively). The live birth rate of the QLAH group was also higher, although not significantly. When the clinical outcomes according to the day of blastocyst vitrification were compared between the groups, the implantation, clinical pregnancy and live birth rates of the QLAH group were significantly higher (P<0.05) than those of the control group for day 6 blastocysts, but not for day 5 or day 5/day 6 blastocysts. These results suggest that QLAH improves the clinical outcomes of vitrified-warmed blastocysts, especially of day 6 vitrified blastocysts, developed from low-grade cleavage-stage embryos.

BackgroundSpontaneous abortion (SA) is the most common complication of pregnancy, and chromosome aberrations are the principal cause of the first trimester abortuses in natural conception (NC) The increasing use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has raised concern about chromosome abnormalities in ART-initiated pregnancies. Up to date, the literature on the risk of aneuploidy in failed pregnancies among various ART factors remain limited and inconclusive. This study aimed to explore the genetic etiology of pregnancy loss conceived from varying ART procedures.ResultsA total of 560 cases of villus that were successfully collected and performed molecular karyotype analysis were enrolled in present research, including 92 cases of NC, 340 cases of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and 128 cases of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). There was no statistical difference in the distribution of karyotyping results and the aneuploidy rate of each individual chromosome among NC, IVF and ICSI group. Both the total chromosomal abnormality rate and the one chromosome aneuploidy rate were increased with maternal age. Compared with fresh ET abortion group, frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) abortion group had elder maternal age (34.68 ± 4.73 years vs. 33.41 ± 4.48 years, P = 0.003) but lower chromosomal aberration rate of abortus (58.33 % vs. 67.50 %, P = 0.040). A slightly higher incidence of chromosome segmental abnormalities was found in FET than in fresh ET abortion (5.26 % vs. 2.08 %, P = 0.066).ConclusionsChromosomal abnormality of fetus is the main cause of SA in the first trimester, no matter pregnancies are conceived through NC, IVF or ICSI. ART is a relatively safety treatment, and it does not enhance aneuploidy rate of abortus. The FET is bad for ongonging pregnancy and the aneuploidy rate were increased with maternal age.

Rho-class glutathione S-transferase (GST) is found only in teleost fish with no homologues in mammals. Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus), and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis nilotica) are three warm freshwater fishes with differential tolerance to microcystin-LR (MC-LR): Nile tilapia has a little higher tolerance than silver carp, but both have much higher tolerance than grass carp. Full-length cDNAs encoding the rho-class GST were cloned and sequenced from the livers of the three fishes. The silver carp, grass carp, and Nile tilapia rho-class GST cDNAs were 1078, 1104, and 904 bp in length, respectively, and all contained an open-reading frame (ORF) of 681 bp (encoding a polypeptide of 226 amino acids). Using beta-actin as an external control, semiquantitative RT-PCR was conducted to determine the constitutive and inducible expression level of alpha- and rho-class GST genes among the three fishes (6-12 g) intraperitoneally injected with MC-LR (50 mug kg(-1) body weight). Liver mRNA expression levels of alpha-class GST gene were found to be higher than those of rho-class GST gene in both exposed and control fish of silver carp and grass carp, whereas liver mRNA expression levels of rho-class GST gene were higher than those of alpha -class GST gene in both exposed and control fish of Nile tilapia. Increased liver transcription of GST isoforms was detected at 8-h postinjection of MC-LR in silver carp (alpha- and rho-class GST) and Nile tilapia (rho-class GST), and at 24-h postinjection in silver carp (alpha-class GST) and Nile tilapia (alpha-class GST), but an increase in liver transcription neither of alpha-class GST nor of rho-class GST was detected in grass carp at either 8-h or 24-h postinjection. The inducible expression of the liver GST gene showed a close relationship with their tolerance to MC-LR: high-resistant fish (phytoplanktivorous silver carp and Nile tilapia) had inducible liver expression of either alpha- or rho-class GST, and the high-sensitive fish (herbivorous grass carp) had no inducible liver expression of either one. We suggest that inducible expression (instead of constitutive expression) of the liver GST gene should play an important role in the tolerance to microcystin exposure, and that in addition to alpha-class GST, high-liver expression of rho-class GST gene might have facilitated the evolutionary radiation of teleost fish.

Background: Early rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has been used in clinic as appropriate currently. While the outcomes of children born after this method were not well assessed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of early rescue ICSI on women with primary infertility. Methods: Fresh embryo transfer cycles after rescue (n = 214) and conventional (n = 546) ICSI were retrospectively evaluated from women with primary infertility who underwent their first assisted reproductive technology cycles at our center in 2012-2017. The conventional ICSI group was subdivided into ICSI-1 (semen suitable for in vitro fertilization, IVF) and ICSI-2 (poor semen quality) to minimize bias from differences in semen quality. Pregnancy, delivery and neonatal outcomes were compared between groups. Results: There was a higher rate of polyspermy and a lower rate of top-quality embryos (TQE) on day 3 for oocytes subject to rescue ICSI compared with conventional ICSI. This reduced the total number of TQE and the number of TQE transferred in the rescue ICSI group. There was no significant difference between groups in clinical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, early miscarriage and live birth. For pregnant women, gestational age, route of delivery, risk of preterm birth and gestational diabetes mellitus were also comparable. Neonatal outcomes including sex ratio, birth weight, neonatal intensive care unit admission and birth defects were also similar after rescue and conventional ICSI. Moreover, no differences were observed with the different ICSI subgroups. Conclusions: For women with primary infertility who have a high risk of IVF fertilization failure (FF), rescue ICSI provides a safe and efficient alternative to minimize FF after initial IVF, but results in fewer TQE on day 3.