Implantation

BACKGROUND: An increased incidence of monozygotic twinning after a blastocyst transfer has been previously reported in assisted reproductive technology treatment. It is uncertain whether this phenomenon is due to the extended culture time, culture medium, or inherent blastocyst parameters. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the association between blastocyst parameters (in vitro culture time, blastocyst stage, and inner cell mass and trophectoderm grading) and the incidence of monozygotic twinning after assisted reproductive technology...

Studies have investigated the relationship between antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and recurrent miscarriage (RM). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the presence of ANA as a risk factor for spontaneous abortion in patients with RM. By considering the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis, the authors performed systematic review and meta-analysis by searching the databases of PubMed/Medline and SCOPUS. Review Manager, Version 5.3 performed the statistical analysis...

One in every nine couples suffers from implantation defects and pregnancy failures. In spite of many contributions that ART has given to infertility treatment, there are many reports of the failure of ART. Therefore, scientists suggested many complementary therapies for use besides ART to improve the quality of infertility treatments. Intrauterine PBMC-therapy is one of these complementary therapies that were used before IVF. Studies that examined PBMC treatment in women with at least three IVF/ET failure were included in this review...

BACKGROUND: Studies investigating the effects of pain-relieving medication use on conceiving a pregnancy have shown conflicting results. Furthermore, no previous study has examined medication use around ovulation or implantation and the associations with the probability of conception, fecundability. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to explore the association between fecundability and analgesic use in 3 different menstrual cycle windows (preovulation, periovulation, and implantation) as well as across the entire menstrual cycle...

Sperm DNA fragmentation (sDF) has emerged as a valuable tool for evaluating male fertility, yet the relationship between DNA fragmentation in the male gamete and idiopathic recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) remains a topic of ongoing debate. Hence, a meta-analysis was conducted of 12 prospective and 2 retrospective studies involving 530 men with a history of RPL who underwent sDF testing compared with 639 fertile control participants. The main outcome measures were sDF measured by comet assay, TdT (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase)-mediated dUDP nick-end labelling (TUNEL), sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) or sperm chromatin structure assay...

Repeated implantation failure is a major challenge in reproductive medicine and despite several methods that have been described for management, there is little consensus on which is the most effective. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of autologous platelet-rich plasma in improving the pregnancy rate in repeated implantation failure. Between 2016 and 2017, a total of 138 patients who failed to conceive after 3 or more embryo transfers with high quality embryos and candidate for frozen-thawed embryo transfer were assessed for eligibility to enter the study...

BACKGROUND: Chronic endometritis is a persistent inflammation of the endometrial mucosa caused by bacterial pathogens such as Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcus, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Mycoplasma, and Ureaplasma. Although chronic endometritis can be asymptomatic, it is found in up to 40% of infertile patients and is responsible for repeated implantation failure and recurrent miscarriage. Diagnosis of chronic endometritis is based on hysteroscopy of the uterine cavity, endometrial biopsy with plasma cells being identified histologically, while specific treatment is determined based on microbial culture...

There is accumulating evidence on the importance of micronutrients in improving fertility in couples undergoing IVF therapy. Despite this, studies reporting the relevant clinical outcomes of IVF, such as pregnancy and live birth rates, are very scarce. This review aimed to systematically summarize clinical evidence on the effect of micronutrients on primary outcome parameters of IVF treatment. The literature was searched up to February 2017 through Embase and PubMed databases for relevant studies. The quality of eligible studies was assessed with the Downs and Black checklist...

STUDY QUESTION: Does endometrial injury in the cycle preceding ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization (IVF) improve the ongoing pregnancy rate in unselected subfertile women? SUMMARY ANSWER: Endometrial injury induced by endometrial aspiration in the preceding cycle does not improve the ongoing pregnancy rate in unselected subfertile women undergoing IVF. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Implantation failure remains one of the major limiting factors for IVF success...

Extensive evidence suggests that soluble ligands and their receptors mediate human preimplantation embryo development and implantation. Progress in this complex area has been ongoing since the 1980s, with an ever-increasing list of candidates. This article specifically reviews evidence of soluble ligands and their receptors in the human preimplantation stage embryo and female reproductive tract. The focus will be on candidates produced by the human preimplantation embryo and those eliciting developmental responses in vitro, as well as endometrial factors related to implantation and receptivity...

Endometrial injury to improve implantation for women undergoing assisted reproductive techniques has attracted a lot of attention recently and has rapidly become incorporated into clinical practice. The aim of this study is, thus, to assess the effectiveness and safety of endometrial injury performed in the cycle preceding assisted reproductive techniques in women with recurrent implantation failure. Electronic database searches, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL and grey literature, up to 30th May 2015 were conducted with no restrictions...

OBJECTIVE: To study the advantage of intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI) versus intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in the first artificial reproductive technology (ART) cycle and in consecutive cycles. DESIGN: A cohort study. SETTING: Single outpatient fertility center. PATIENT(S): Couples presenting with male factor infertility, requiring ovum micromanipulation. INTERVENTION(S): The ICSI or IMSI was performed according to the couple's choice...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

PROBLEM: Endometritis is a common reproductive disorder in female domestic animals. Roles of cytokines and chemokines have been implicated in this disease. To date, no comprehensive panel of the cytokine profile in inflammatory sites of endometritis has been reported. METHOD OF STUDY: To address cytokine profiles in endometritis, a bacteria-induced rat model of endometritis was developed and levels of 27 cytokines were measured in paired uterine horn tissues using a multiple cytokine array...

PROBLEM: We aimed to investigate natural killer 22 (NK22) cells in the peripheral blood and the uterine endometrium of women with unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss (URPL) and unexplained infertility (UI). METHOD OF STUDY: Peripheral blood and endometrial samples were collected from women with URPL (n = 43) and UI (n = 38). Intracellular cytokine production, such as IL-22, IFN-γ and TNF-α, and the expression of NKp46 on NK cells were analyzed by three-color flow cytometry...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that the intrauterine administration of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) may improve pregnancy outcome of women with repeated implantation failure (RIF). We have demonstrated that, during implantation, corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) plays a key role in facilitating endometrial decidualization and maternal-foetal immunotolerance. In the present preliminary study, we investigated whether the intrauterine administration of autologous CRH-treated PBMC can improve clinical pregnancy rates of women with RIF...

Thrombophilic genetic factors have been shown to play an important role in implantation outcome after in vitro fertilisation (IVF). In this pilot study we investigated the frequencies of glycoprotein Ia (GpIa)-C807T and GpIIIa-PlA1/PlA2 polymorphisms in 60 nulligravidae women with a history of unexplained IVF implantation failures and compared them with 60 healthy fertile women. We found statistically significant associations between the GpIa-C807T and GpIIIa-PlA1/PlA2 polymorphisms and IVF implantation failure (odds ratio [OR] = 3...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

STUDY QUESTION: Does vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) have important roles during early embryo development and implantation? SUMMARY ANSWER: VEGF plays key roles during mouse preimplantation embryo development, with beneficial effects on time to cavitation, blastocyst cell number and outgrowth, as well as implantation rate and fetal limb development. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Embryo implantation requires synchronized dialog between maternal cells and those of the conceptus...