Antinuclear Antibodies Predicts a Poor IVF-ET Outcome: Impaired Egg and Embryo Development and Reduced Pregnancy Rate

To investigate the impact of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANAs) on the outcome of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET), 66 (96 cycles) infertile women positive for antinuclear antibodies (ANA+ group), and 233(285 cycles) infertile women negative for ANAs (ANA-group) were enrolled. The clinical characteristics and IVF outcome were compared between the two groups. In the ANA+ group, the proportion of MII oocytes and two-pronuclear zygotes (2PN), cleavage rate, number of available embryos and proportion of available embryos, number of high-quality embryos and proportion of high-quality embryos were significantly lower than those in the ANA-group. In addition, the pregnancy rate and implantation rate in patients positive for ANA was markedly lower than the ANA-patients (28.1% vs 46.4%, 15% vs 25.7%, respectively). Thus, our findings suggest that the presence of ANAs significantly interfere with the oocyte and embryo development, as well as reduce implantation and pregnancy rate in patients undergoing IVF treatment.