OBJECTIVETo observe the effects of Chinese traditional medicine Yi Kang Ling (YKL) on immunity infertility caused by anti-sperm antibodies (AsAb).

METHODSWith the AsAb infertile rabbit as the experimental model, seventy-five pairs of New zealand rabbits were divided into three group including YKL treatment group (sub-divided into mini-, midi- and maxi-dosage groups), prednisone treatment group and non-treatment group. Rabbits of the YKL treatment sub-groups were further divided into M+F- (male positive, female negative), M-F+, (male negative, female positive) and M+F+ (male positive, female positive) pairs according to their initial AsAb detection results. The control group consisted of five pairs of normal rabbits. When the expected AsAb reversing ratio was achieved, the rabbits were matted and observed for the number of the pregnant and the weight of the newborn.

RESULTSStatistics showed that in M+F- pairs both the midi-dosage of YKL and prednisone treatment groups had fertility, in the mini- and maxi-dosage of YKL treatment groups, 20% of the female rabbits failed to be pregnant, while in the non-treatment group, 60% female rabbits remained sterile. The sterile ratios of the M-F+ pairs in the mini-, midi- and maxi-dosage of YKL and prednisone treatment groups were 0, 20%, 25% and 25%, respectively, while the sterile ratio in the non-treatment M-F+ group was 40%. In M+F+ groups, the sterile ratios of the three YKL sub-groups, prednisone treatment and non-treatment groups were 20%, 20% and 60% respectively. In the control group the sterile ratio was 20%. The weight of the newborn rabbits were around 50 grams with no visible malformation.

CONCLUSIONSYKL can effectively reverse the AsAb positive results, and restore the fertility of female rabbits. Mini-dosage of YKL for 45 days produced the best results and maxi-dosage of YKL had no negative effects on the weight of the newborn rabbit.

Animals ; Autoantibodies ; immunology ; Female ; Infertility, Male ; drug therapy ; etiology ; immunology ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Rabbits ; Spermatozoa ; immunology

OBJECTIVETo analyze the effect of autoimmune disorders on the outcome of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) in infertile women.

METHODSA total of 236 infertile women underwent IVF-ET, including 34 with antiphospholipid antibody (APA) positive, 33 anti-trophoblast antibody (ATA) positive, 35 anti-hCG antibody (hCGAb) positive, 32 anti-endometrium antibody (EmAb) positive, and 102 with antibodies negative that comprised the control group. Those with two or more antibodies positive were excluded in this study. Comparisons were made in the rates of embryo implantation, clinical pregnancy, miscarriage and biochemical pregnancy between the positive groups and the negative controls.

RESULTSThere were no significant differences in the rates of embryo implantation and clinical pregnancy between the positive and negative groups (P > 0.05). The rate of biochemical pregnancy was higher in the APA, ATA and hCGAb positive than in the EmAb positive and the control group (P < 0.05). The miscarriage rate was higher while the ongoing pregnancy rate was lower in the positive groups than in the negative control (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSuch autoantibodies as APA, ATA, HCG-Ab and EmAb may cause miscarriage in infertile women undergoing IVF and consequently reduce the rate of ongoing pregnancy, which necessitates the determination of these antibodies in these patients.

Adult ; Autoantibodies ; analysis ; Autoimmune Diseases ; complications ; immunology ; Female ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Humans ; Infertility, Female ; etiology ; immunology ; therapy ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Outcome

Adjuvants, Immunologic ; therapeutic use ; Adult ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Infertility, Female ; drug therapy ; etiology ; immunology ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Phytotherapy

Heat shock proteins (HSP) have been identified as an important factor of a very complex and highly conserved cellular defense mechanism to preserve cell survival under adverse environmental conditions. HSP 60 are immunodominant antigens of microbe such as Chlamydia trachomatis and have a potentiality to become a target antigen due to antigenic similarity between chlamydial and human HSP. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Vero cell coculture to anti-HSP 60 on the early mouse embryo development in vitro. The 2-cell mouse embryos (ICR) were cultured and mouse embryo development was observed every 24 hr for 3 days. 45% and 22.1% of the embryos cultured in Ham's F-10 plus anti HSP 60 with Vero cells developed to the 4- to 8- cell stage (day 1) and morular stage (day 2) as compared with 29.2% and 2.7% of those cultured without Vero cells respectively. But at day 3, the beneficial effect of Vero cells was not noted. These findings suggest that Vero cells have some roles to overcome the detrimental effect of anti-HSP 60 to some degree. These results suggest that Vero cells coculture will promote reproductive outcome in patient previously sensitized to microbial (e.g. Chlamydia trachomatis) HSP 60.
Vero Cells ; Pregnancy ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Mice ; Male ; Infertility, Female/etiology/immunology/therapy ; Immunodominant Epitopes ; Female ; Embryonic Development/*immunology ; Coculture Techniques ; Chlamydia trachomatis/immunology/pathogenicity ; Chaperonin 60/*immunology ; Cercopithecus aethiops ; Antigens, Bacterial ; Antibodies, Monoclonal/*administration & dosage ; Animals

OBJECTIVETo compare the effect of combined therapy of Zhenqi Zhuanyin Decoction (ZQZYD) and timely intrauterine insemination (IUI) with that of using ZQZYD and IUI separately in treating patients of sterility with positive anti-sperm antibody (AsAb).

METHODSOne hundred and three patients were randomly divided into 3 groups, 34 patients in Group A treated with combined ZQZYD and IUI, 34 in Group B treated with ZQZYD alone and 35 in Group C treated with IUI alone. The negative conversion rate of AsAb, pregnancy rate in patients, pregnancy rate in AsAb converted patients, as well as changes of TCM Syndrome and T-lymphocyte subsets were observed.

RESULTS(1) The negative conversion rate of AsAb in the 3 groups was 76.47% (26/34), 82.35% (28/34) and 8.57% (3/35) respectively. (2) In Group A, the pregnancy rate was 41.18% (14/34), pregnancy rate in AsAb negative converted patients was 50.0% (13/26); in Group B, the respective criteria was 20.59% (7/34) and 21.43% (6/28) respectively; and in Group C, the pregnancy rate was 11.43% (4/35). The pregnancy rate in Group A was significantly higher than that in Group B or C (P < 0.01). (3) The effective rate on TCM Syndrome in Group A and B was 88.23% and 91.18% respectively (P > 0.05). (4) In Group A and B, CD4 decreased, CD8 increased and CD4/CD8 ratio decreased after treatment, which were significantly different from those before treatment and in Group C after treatment (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONCombined therapy of ZQZYD and IUAI shows a better effect in treating infertility with positive AsAb than that by ZQXYD or IUI alone.

Adult ; Antibodies ; blood ; CD4-CD8 Ratio ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Infertility, Female ; etiology ; immunology ; therapy ; Insemination, Artificial, Homologous ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Phytotherapy ; Spermatozoa ; immunology ; Yang Deficiency ; drug therapy

In order to explore the rules of combined Chinese and Western medical treatment on immune infertility, the study was carried out by searching relative primary documents from databases and 26 articles (dealing with 5865 cases) were screened out. Excel was used to perform the frequency analysis on the Western drugs and 27 Chinese recipes emerging in the documents separately. It was discovered that the combined use of Chinese and Western medicines has its superiority. Low dose glucocorticoids together with vitamine is the main Western treatment used, and dexamethasone is the most frequently used preparation of glucocorticoids. Among the 72 Chinese drugs presented in the 27 Chinese recipes, 13 appeared for more than 1800 times, they were Angelica sinensis, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Radix Paeoniae Rubra, Radix Astragali, Poria, Carthamus tinctorius, Phellodendron amurense, Scutellaria baicalensis, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, Rehmannia glutinosa, Cuscuta chinensis, Radix Paeoniae Alba and Radix Glycyrrhiza.
Angelica sinensis ; Astragalus Plant ; Bibliometrics ; Carthamus tinctorius ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Glucocorticoids ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Infertility, Female ; drug therapy ; etiology ; immunology ; Integrative Medicine ; methods ; Phytotherapy ; Plant Extracts ; Rehmannia ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; Scutellaria baicalensis