Role of Human Leukocyte Antigens in Infertility

Introduction: Infertility is defined as inability to become pregnant or carry a pregnancy to full term. Despite the dramatic advances in medical knowledge, infertility is still considering as a medical challenge. Every day, newer factors associated with the occurrence of infertility are being discovered. Nowadays, human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-typing significantly has been considered as new factor that can impact on human’s fertility capacity. The aim of this paper is to review the relationship between HLA molecules and induction of infertility. Methods: The content used in this paper has been obtained by a PubMed and Google Scholar search of English language articles (1990-2018) using the terms HLA , infertility , HLA Polymorphisms . Results: HLA-molecules through various mechanisms, can induction infertility. For example, overexpression of HLA-DQA1 *0401 alleles can be associated with induction of anti-sperm antibody-positive immune infertility. Also, it has been shown that expression of HLA-I molecules along with absence of HLA-G molecules on surface of placenta cells through a series of mechanisms can including increase stimulation of cytotoxic T cells and inability to suppress of complement regulatory proteins. These events can lead to immunological intolerance of the human fetus and finally induction of up-regulate immune system response against the fetus. However, because of the different populations and races around the world have different HLA polymorphisms; it is necessary to do examination of relationship between HLA genes and different types of infertility in different populations and races around the world. Conclusion: Given that in Iran country, about the relationship between HLA-typing and infertility has not been widely discussed. Further study on relationship between HLA typing and infertility in different ethnicities in across the Iran country, can be helpful for preventing infertility in mans and women, as well as, improving the efficiency of the methods hat are used to treat infertility.

کلیدواژه ها:

Human Leukocyte Antigens ، Infertility ، HLA Polymorphisms ، cellular immunity