Interleukin-15 and Glypican-1 as Predictive Biomarkers for Ovarian Response and Pregnancy Success in ICSI Cycles

Abstract

Introduction: Ovarian microenvironment plays importance role in determining ovarian response and reproductive outcomes in intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Several inflammatory and growth-associated biomarkers such as IL-15 and glypican-1 can be used to estimate ovarian response and pregnancy outcome. This study aims to assess the concentration of IL-15 and glypican-1 in serum and follicular fluid in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization and correlate the markers' presence with ovarian response and pregnancy outcome.
Aim of the study: The study aimed to evaluate serum and follicular fluid levels of glypican and IL-15 in women undergoing ICSI and to determine the correlation with ovarian response, oocyte development and pregnancy outcomes.
Subjects and Methods: A total of 120 infertile women undergoing ICSI were enrolled and stratified according to ovarian response into three groups of 40 participants each: poor responders, normal responders, and hyper-responders. Follicular fluid concentrations of IL-15 and glypican-1 were quantified by ELISA on the oocyte retrieval day and embryo transfer day. Associations between hormonal profiles, oocyte characteristics, and pregnancy outcomes were evaluated using nonparametric tests and correlation analyses.
Results: It was found that the concentrations of studied markers significantly differed between three groups (P < 0.001). Both biomarkers were found to positively correlate with hormonal activity and characteristics of the follicle/oocyte. Nevertheless, most of the biomarkers did not serve as reliable predictors of pregnancy outcome. It was found that serum glypican-1 on the oocyte retrieval day has low predictive value (AUC = 0.625), and only follicular fluid CRH in normal responders group showed better predictive accuracy (AUC = 0.769).
Conclusions: IL-15 and glypican-1 have a positive association with follicle/oocyte development and ovarian response, yet do not serve as predictors of pregnancy success.