BACKGROUND

Immunological and hormonal problems, notably changes in cytokine levels, are now being closely linked to sub-fertility. This study aimed to assess how sub-fertile women respond to intrauterine insemination (IUI) after dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) treatment and compare them to healthy fertile women in terms of cytokine profiles.

METHODS

A total of 90 participants took part in the cross-sectional study: 60 sub-fertile women taking DHEA (25 mg thrice daily for eight weeks) and 30 healthy fertile controls. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine the amounts of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) present in the serum samples. Data was analyzed with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). A comparison of cytokine levels was made using an independent t-test, with p < 0.05 considered significant.

RESULTS

Mean IL-6 values in sub-fertile women (12.8 ± 4.1 pg/mL) were substantially higher than in the control group (7.2 ± 2.5 pg/mL) (p = 0.001). Patients in the study had TNF-α levels of 18.5 ± 5.3 pg/mL, higher than the control group with 11.7 ± 3.8 pg/mL (p = 0.003). Our results showed that interleukin-10 (IL-10) was significantly lower in the sub-fertile group (6.4 ± 2.2 pg/mL) than in the control group (10.1 ± 2.9 pg/mL) (p = 0.002). The findings revealed that sub-fertile women continue to show a pro-inflammatory response in their immune system.

CONCLUSION

Sub-fertile women on DHEA and treated with IUI had higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and lower levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines than did healthy controls. The results suggested that certain immunological responses could help, and more research was needed to learn how cytokines influence fertility management.