Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

Abstract

ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND:
The Th-1 cytokines were well implicated in adversely affecting pregnancy and the mechanism by which they cause pregnancy loss was suggested to be mainly vascular by activation of mediators of inflammation like certain adhesion molecules.
OBJECTIVE:
To study the pathological effect of IFN-γ and VCAM-1 in recurrent pregnancy loss.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
The study included three groups of women; Group A: patients had recurrent abortion (n=24), Group B: patients had spontaneous abortion for the first time (n=10), Group C: women with elective pregnancy termination (n=6). Curate samples obtained from these women were subjected for in situ hybridization technique to determine the in situ expression of IFN-γ, and immunohistochemistry analysis to detect the expression of VCAM-1.
RESULTS:
The in situ expression of IFN-γ was significantly higher in women with RSA as compared with normal pregnant and first abortion groups (p=0.000 and 0.002) respectively, and the expression of VCAM-1 was also significantly higher (p=0.005) in women with RSA as compared with those who had abortion for the first time, with a positive correlation between the expression of IFN-γ and VCAM-1 (r=0.418; p<0.05) in women with RSA.
CONCLUSION:
The data of this study strengthen the possibility that type-1 immune response may have the upper hand in the pathology of RSA on multidirectional bases including up regulation of the surface expression of VCAM-1