Objective: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is a common disorder defined as occurrence of 3 or more unintentional abortions during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. Uterine factors responsible for RPL have been recently brought into focus. Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is one of the uterine molecular mediators associated with implantation and endometrial receptivity. In the present study the association of endometrial and serum levels of LIF with recurrent pregnancy loss and infertility were investigated.
Methods: In a prospective case control study measurements of LIF in endometrial tissue and blood samples in 4 groups of patients were performed and compared; one group consisted of 24 RPL cases, one group consisted of 24 patients with coexisting RPL and secondary infertility, one group of 20 primary infertility cases and a control group of 20 women without any fertility or pregnancy problem. LIF measurement was performed using ELISA technique.
Results: There was no statistically significant variation of serum and endometrial levels of LIF among studied groups.
Conclusion and recommendation: The present study is the first to investigate endometrial LIF levels in patients with RPL and infertility. The results failed to demonstrated significant statistical difference measurements of both serum and endometrial LIF among patients with RPL, infertility or both with controls.
