Lack of inflammation may lead to Implantation failure

Posted By Braverman IVF & Reproductive Immunology || 8-Mar-2012

A new study out of China, confirms what has been our belief, that at the time of implantation, the inability to produce a local inflammatory response may be responsible for many IVF failures. This is not true for recurrent miscarriages, but just those that get a negative beta HCG altogether. They looked at the level of TH17 (an inflammatory) ctyokine and compared it to the level of T regulator cytokines (such as IL10) and when the ratios were low (i.e. TH17 was low) there was a significant decrease in positive beta HCGs.

This leads us to two conclusions -- we should be careful to not arbitrarily suppress with steroids/Intralipids/or IVIG unless we know there is an increased state of production of inflammatory cytokines, as this could actually decrease the chances of pregnancy. We have seen many cases come to our clinic with such a problem as outside clinics over-treated and they responded to removal of the suppressants and addition of correct therapies that led to a successful pregnancy. There may be some patients that have an inherent defect in the production or lack thereof of IL10 or TH1/Inf gamma or even TNF that can lead to implantation failure. We have begun to test for these genetic problems in our immune panels.

Share Post