EVALUATION OF SERUM-ASSOCIATED EMBRYOTOXICITY IN WOMEN WITH REPRODUCTIVE DISORDERS

Purpose: Our purpose was to determine whether some cases of infertilit y may be due to serological factors inhibiting development of the embr yo. Method: We examined the effect of infertile women's sera on the ex pansion, attachment, and spreading of mouse blastocysts in culture. Ce ll marker expression, was also assayed by an indirect immunofluorescen ce technique. Serum samples from 75 infertile women were compared to t he effect of 24 control AB sera. Results: After 72 hr, blastocyst spre ading was significantly different depending on whether cultured in ser a from women with unexplained infertility, anovulatory infertility, di ethylstilbesterol exposure or controls. Neither sera from women with m echanical infertility (14) nor sera from women with endometriosis (8) affected blastocyst growth in culture. Conclusions: Inhibitory sera we re capable of reducing cytokeratin expression but had no effect on pla cental alkaline phosphatase or concanavalin A expression by blastocyst cells. It can be inferred that the inhibitory effect of sera from wom en with certain types of infertility might be due to damage to the cyt oskeleton. This in vitro assay may predict the success or failure of I VF.