Insulin-like growth factor-1 and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 and 3 in the follicular fluid of infertile patients submitted to in vitro fertilization.

PURPOSE: In the present article we propose to evaluate IGF-1, IGFBP-1 and 3 in the follicular fluid of infertile patients submitted to in vitro fertilization.
METHODS: We performed a case-control study with 53 infertile patients submitted to the first in vitro fertilization attempt. We compared their follicular fluid concentration of IGF-1, IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-3 between the patients who became pregnant (n = 11) versus those nonpregnant (n = 42).
RESULTS: The clinical characteristics of patients from the two groups were similar in terms of age and body mass index. Data related to the analysis of ovulation induction was not different regarding length of induction in days, number of retrieved oocytes, fertilization rate, and number of transferred embryos. Furthermore, the number of FSH units required for ovarian induction was also similar between the studied groups. IGF-1 and IGFBP-1 were not significantly different between the groups (p > 0.05). However, those patients that became pregnant presented a lower follicular fluid concentration of IGFBP-3, 2237.10 +/- 582.73 pg/ml and 2657.64 +/- 584.15 ng/ml, respectively (p = 0.038).
CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated an association of a lower follicular fluid IGFBP-3 in individuals that became pregnant compared to subjects that did not after in vitro fertilization.