Role of Endometrial CD56 and CD16+ Natural killer Cells and Subendometrial Doppler in Unexplained Infertility

Abstract

Unexplained infertility is one of the most common diagnoses in a fertility clinic. There is one in every four couples in developing countries had been found to be affected by infertility. In the absence of a specific medical cause a specific treatment for unexplained infertility is lacking. Several studies suggest that immunological testing is necessary for the management of infertility. Uterine natural killer cells constitute the greatest proportion of maternal decidual leukocytes during pregnancy, which suggest that they have an important role in endometrial receptivity and embryo implantation. Endometrial vasculature has been shown to play an important role in the early endometrial response to the implanting blastocyst, and vascular changes may contribute to uterine receptivity. In the current study, a prospective case-control study was carried out on 180 women divided into two groups, 120 women represented cases suffering from primary unexplained infertility, and the other 60 normal fertile women represented controls, both groups recruited from the infertility clinic and family planing clinic of Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital during the period from April 2014 to June 2015. The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between endometrial NK cells and unexplained infertility, secondary objective was to find relation between endometrial NK cells and impaired perfusion in women who sufferd unexplained infertility.