The role of clinical and immunological factors in the outcomes of in vitro fertilization procedure in women

Abstract

The objective: to determine the features of clinical and immunological factors in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure and to determine a relationship between these parameters and the procedure outcomes.Materials and methods. In the period from 2020 to 2022, 131 patients were examined at the Reproductive Department of the Caspian International Hospital. Of these, 103 (78.6%) are aged 19-35 years, 28 (21.4%) are aged 36-50. Patients were grouped and analyzed based on: IVF success (presence or absence of fertilization), pregnancy (yes, no), and infertility factors. Markers of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (CD16/56 and HLA-DR) were determined in 50 women. The cytokines – interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interferon-ɣ (IFN-ɣ) were studied in blood serum of 84 patients. All samples were taken at the day of oocyte pick-up. Descriptive statistical methods (mean, standard deviation, median, frequency, percentage, and minimum and maximum), Student-t test and Mann–Whitney U test (for comparisons between two groups) were used while evaluating the study data. Statistical significance was accepted as p<0.05.Results. Female infertility occurred in 49 (37.4%) patients, 82 (62.6%) patients were fertile. There was no significant difference in CD16/56 and HLA-DR levels depending on pregnancy status, IVF outcomes and infertility factors (p>0.05). The levels of IL-1β and IFN-ɣ differed in the blood serum of patients with and without pregnancy (p=0.041 and p=0.037, respectively). Analysis of groups based on infertility factors showed that there were not significant differences (p>0.05) in the levels of CD16/56, HLA-DR, IL-1β, TNF-α and IFN-ɣ between groups. Conclusions. Our study showed that there is an association between serum levels of IL‒1β and IFN-y and successful pregnancy in the IVF procedure. We did not reveal the other relationships between clinical and immunological parameters in women with IVF procedure.