IL‐7 and IL‐8 inhibit gamete interaction in the zona‐free hamster egg sperm penetration assay

article OA: gold CC0
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-11 ⓘ

Interleukin-7 and interleukin-8 were found to inhibit sperm penetration of hamster eggs in vitro in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting a potential role in subfertility.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Current thought in reproductive endocrinology suggests hat endometriosis-associated subfertility may be the result of an adverse influence of activated immunocompetent cells on fertilization and embryo development. Inflammatory ediators such as interleukin-1 and tumour necrosis actor have been implicated in the pathophysiology of this process. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of two recently characterized cytokines, interleukin-7 (IL-7 ) and interleukin-8 (IL-8), on gamete interaction in the perm penetration assay (SPA). Donor sperm were preincubated or 4 h with 0.5, 5, 50, or 500 ng ml(-1) of human ecombinant IL-7 or IL-8. Sperm penetration was determined by an experienced gametologist by the presence of decondensed sperm heads or pronuclei formation. A dose-dependent inhibition of gamete interaction was observed following coincubation with either IL-7 or IL-8. These data offer the possibility that IL-7 and IL-8 may play a role in the pathogenesis of immunocompetent cell-associated subfertility.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

Citation neighborhood (sparse)

Too few in-corpus citations on either side for a chart; here are the lists.

Cites (2)

References (6)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-09-27T09:11:36.575535+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:11:49.821429+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK