فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background: Recurrent implantation failure (RIF) presents a major challenge in assisted reproductive technology. Anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-10 (IL-10), are essential for proper embryo implantation and the maintenance of pregnancy. Viruses can significantly impact the implantation failure process by disrupting the balanced secretion of both anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Objectives: The present study aimed to examine the relationship between IL-10 levels and the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) and human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) genomes in endometrial secretion samples from women with RIF. Methods: This cross-sectional, single-center study was conducted at the Infertility Center of Aban Hospital of Tehran, between September 2021 and March 2022. After obtaining informed consent and confirming the inclusion criteria with a specialist physician, endometrial secretion samples from 20 women with RIF were collected to evaluate IL-10 levels using flow cytometry. Extracted viral DNA was analyzed using nested-polymerase chain reaction (nested-PCR) targeting the L1 gene for HPV and real time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) targeting human herpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A) and human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B). Results: The study population age ranged from 32 to 38 years and the mean age was 34.95 ± 2.01 years. The mean duration of infertility among women was 5.9 ± 0.9 years. The range of IL-10 concentration was 1.05 to 13.52 (3.23 ± 3.4) pg/mL. In contrast to no detection of HPV DNA, the HHV-6A genome was detected among 1/20 (5%) of samples. There was no statistically significant difference in IL-10 production between samples with negative and positive results of viral DNA detection (P > 0.05). Conclusions: In this study, consistent with previous reports, low levels of IL-10 concentration were detected in the endometrial secretion samples of women with RIF, which may contribute to a pro-inflammatory uterine environment and hinder successful implantation. The dysregulation of IL-10 observed in our samples was not influenced by uterine HPV and/or HHV-6 infection, suggesting that other pathogens and immune modulators may warrant further investigation.