[Expression of soluble human leukocyte antigen G and its relationship to embryo development].

Objective: To find out the expression of soluble human leukocyte antigen G (sHLA-G) and its relationship to the cleavage embryo development.

Methods: One hundred and seventy-seven day 3 cleavage embryos were detected for sHLA-G by immunohistochemistry.

Results: sHLA-G was detected in 57.1% cleavage embryos. The positive rate of sHLA-G in cleavage embryos developed from dipronucleate fertilized eggs was 66.2% (90/136), that developed from tripronucleate fertilized eggs was 26.8% (11/41). There was significant difference between these two groups (P < 0.01). The positive rate of sHLA-G in the grade 1 cleavage embryos developed from dipronucleate fertilized eggs was 64.3% (18/28), that in the grade 2 cleavage embryos developed from dipronucleate fertilized eggs was 91.7% (66/72), that in the grade 3 cleavage embryos developed from dipronucleate fertilized eggs was 16.7% (6/36), there were significant differences between these different embryo grades (P < 0.01), and the intensity of sHLA-G had negative relationship with the embryo grades (r = -0.503). The positive rate of sHLA-G in the first class cleavage embryos developed from tripronucleate fertilized eggs was 88.9% (32/36), that from dipronucleate fertilized eggs was 64.3% (18/28). There was significant difference in these two groups (P < 0.01). The intensity of sHLA-G in cleavage embryos developed from tripronucleate fertilized eggs was higher than that from dipronucleate fertilized eggs. The positive rate of sHLA-G in the cleavage embryos developed from dipronucleate fertilized eggs whose cell number was less than 4 was 56.7% (34/60), that from dipronucleate fertilized eggs whose cell number ranged from 5 to 6 was 67.9% (36/53), and that from dipronucleate fertilized eggs whose cell number ranged from 7 to 8 was 87.0% (20/23). There were no significant differences in these three groups. The intensity of sHLA-G had no significant difference between embryos with different cell number (P > 0.05), but it had relationship with the cell number (r = 0.267).

Conclusion: Cleavage embryos express sHLA-G which is related with the embryo development.