Interferon gamma and interleukin 10 levels in preimplantation embryo culture media

Purpose The aim of our study is to elucidate whether human oocyteslembryos secrete IFN and/or IL-10 and whether the fertilization process depends on the balance between these cytokines.Methods A total of 142 embryo culture media from 24 patients were collected and the cytokine levels were tested with ELISA.Results IFN and IL-10 were detectable in 40.1% and 29.6% of culture media respectively. The difference of IFN and IL-10 levels in media from fertilized oocytes between day 1 and day 2 are significant (0.46 vs. 1.47 and 34.2 vs. 12.7, respectively). However there was no significant difference between the IFN levels of the media from fertilized and nonfertilized oocytes 0.46 vs. 0.85 at day 1 and 1.47 vs. 1.49 at day 2, as well as IL-10 levels 34.2 vs. 30.9 at day 1 and 12.7 vs. 9.58 at day 2 respectively.Conclusions Human preimplantation embryos secrete the cytokines IFN and IL-10. No effect of these cytokines on fertilization process could be shown.Presented at the IXth World Congress on In Vitro Fertilization and Alternate Assisted Reproduction, April 3–7, 1995, Vienna, Austria.