The task force of the Korean Society for Reproductive Immunology recommends intravenous immunoglobulin G treatment in women with reproductive failure, including recurrent pregnancy loss and/or repeated implantation failure, who show cellular immune factors such as abnormal natural killer cell levels, natural killer cell cytotoxicity, and/or type 1 T helper immunity.
ObjectiveTo study the clinical outcomes of single frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer cycles according to the hatching status of frozen-thawed blastocysts.MethodsFrozen-thawed blastocysts were divided into three groups according to their hatching status as follows: less-than-expanded blastocyst (≤EdB), hatching blastocyst (HgB), and hatched blastocyst (HdB). The female age and infertility factors of each group were evaluated. The quality of the single frozen-thawed blastocyst was also graded as grade A, tightly packed inner cell mass (ICM) and many cells organized in the trophectoderm epithelium (TE); grade B, several and loose ICM and TE; and grade C, very few ICM and a few cells in the TE. The clinical pregnancy and implantation rate were compared between each group. The data were analyzed by either t-test or chi-square analysis.ResultsThere were no statistically significant differences in average female ages, infertility factors, or the distribution of blastocyst grades A, B, and C in each group. There was no significant difference in the clinical pregnancy and implantation rate of each group according to their blastocyst grade. However, there was a significant difference in the clinical pregnancy and implantation rate between each group. In the HdB group, the clinical pregnancy and implantation rate were similar regardless of the blastocyst quality.ConclusionThere was an effect on the clinical outcomes depending on whether the blastocyst hatched during single frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer. When performing single frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer, the hatching status of the frozen-thawed blastocyst may be a more important parameter for clinical outcomes than the quality of the frozen-thawed blastocyst.
We investigated the relation between polymorphisms in the interleukin-1(IL-1) and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) gene, and bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal Korean women. The IL-1alpha C(-889)T polymorphism, and IL-1beta C(-511)T polymorphism were examined by restriction fragment length polymorphism, and 86-bp variable number tandem repeat polymorphism in the IL-1ra gene was analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction and electrophoresis in 202 postmenopausal Korean women. Serum osteocalcin, and C-telopeptide of type I collagen were measured using a radioimmunoassay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. BMD at the lumbar spine and proximal femur was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometer. No significant differences in BMD or in serum bone markers levels were noted across the IL-1alpha or IL-1beta genotype. There were no significant differences in the distribution of IL-1alpha or IL-1beta genotype according to the status of bone mass. BMD in women carrying the A2 allele of the IL-1ra gene was significantly lower than those without this allele, and the A2 allele was more frequent in osteoporotic women than in normal women. These data suggest that IL-1ra gene VNTR polymorphism is a genetic factor that may affect BMD in Korean women.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.