Antinuclear Antibodies Predicts a Poor IVF-ET Outcome: Impaired Egg and Embryo Development and Reduced Pregnancy Rate

Abstract

To investigate the impact of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANAs) on the outcome of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET), 66 (96 cycles) infertile women positive for anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA+ group), and 233(285 cycles) infertile women negative for ANAs (ANA− group) were enrolled. The clinical characteristics and IVF outcome were compared between the two groups. In the ANA+ group, the proportion of MII oocytes and two-pronuclear zygotes (2PN), cleavage rate, number of available embryos and proportion of available embryos, number of high-quality embryos and proportion of high-quality embryos were significantly lower than those in the ANA− group. In addition, the pregnancy rate and implantation rate in patients positive for ANA was markedly lower than the ANA− patients (28.1% vs 46.4%, 15% vs 25.7%, respectively). Thus, our findings suggest that the presence of ANAs significantly interfere with the oocyte and embryo development, as well as reduce implantation and pregnancy rate in patients undergoing IVF treatment.

• Antinuclear antibody
• In vitro fertilization-embryo transfer
• Outcome
• Oocyte
• embryo

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The study was supported by Science & Technology Project of Guangdong Province (No. 2009B030801155) and the Scientific Research Program of Population and Family-plan Committee of Guangdong Province (No. 2010243).

Declaration of interest: The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.