Immunotherapy to improve pregnancy outcome in women with abnormal natural killer cell levels/activity and recurrent miscarriage or implantation failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
File(s)Ee Von systematic review JRI accepted version.pdf (1.14 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Woon, Ee Von
Day, Andrea
Bracewell-Milnes, Timothy
Male, Victoria
Johnson, Mark
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
There is a trend towards offering immunotherapy to women with unexplained reproductive failure based on abnormal Natural Killer (NK) cell levels. Previous systematic reviews evaluating immunotherapy usage have not focused on women with abnormal level of NK cells. To address the gap in literature, this systematic review aims to evaluate the efficacy of immunotherapy to improve pregnancy outcome in women with recurrent miscarriage (RM) or implantation failure (RIF) specifically selected based on abnormal levels and/or activity of NK cells. Six databases were searched for peer-reviewed studies following PRISMA guidelines. Risk of bias assessment was conducted using RoB2 for randomized controlled trials (RCT) and ROBINS-I for non-RCT. Of 1025 studies identified, seven studies on intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) (four), prednisolone (one), etanercept (one) and intralipid (one) were included. Meta-analysis of the non-RCT IVIG studies (557 participants; 312 intervention, 245 controls) showed livebirth in favour of intervention (RR 2.57; 95 % CI = 1.79-3.69; p < 0.05), however there were significant heterogeneity (I2 = 62 %) and moderate to severe risk of bias in these studies. Individual RCTs reported improved livebirth outcome in etanercept, intralipid and prednisolone and this was significant in the former two (p < 0.05). In conclusion, there may be some benefit of immunotherapy, but paucity of high quality evidence means that it is not possible to support the use of immunotherapy even when selected based on abnormal NK cell level/activity. Further research with application of scientifically validated immunological biomarkers in well-planned large scale RCTs will determine whether immunotherapy is beneficial in this subpopulation of women.
Date Issued
2020-11
Date Acceptance
2020-08-12
Citation
Journal of Reproductive Immunology, 2020, 142, pp.1-12
ISSN
0165-0378
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
1
End Page
12
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Reproductive Immunology
Volume
142
Copyright Statement
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
The Borne Foundation
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32889304
PII: S0165-0378(20)30110-8
Grant Number
N/A
Subjects
IVIG
Immunotherapy
NK cells cytotoxicity
Natural killer cells
Recurrent implantation failure
Recurrent miscarriage
Publication Status
Published online
Coverage Spatial
Ireland
Date Publish Online
2020-08-22