Induction of vcam-1 expression by human cytomegalovirus infection in women with spontaneous abortion

Abstract EN

Objective : To elucidate the possible role of Human Cytomegalovirus HCMV in pregnancy loss through induction of certain pro-inflammatory adhesion molecules.

Methods : Paraffin embedded sections of currete samples were obtained from 34 women who had spontaneous abortion, and 5 from women who had elective termination of pregnancy (as control), and then subjected for immunohistochemistry analysis to detect human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) early protein and VCAM-1 molecule.

Results : Nine out of 34 women with spontaneous abortion were positive for HCMV early protein, with a significantly higher expression of VCAM-1 in HCMV positive cases as compared with HCMV negative and the control group (P = 0.05, 0.001; respectively).

Conclusions : HCMV infection may play an important role in the pathology of pregnancy loss on multidirectional bases include inducing the surface expression of pro-inflammatory adhesion molecules like VCAM-1.