Introduction: Adipokines are involved in the regulation of the female reproductive system. The purpose was to study the possibility of using adipokines levels in the follicular fluid to predict IVF efficiency.
Materials and methods: Four groups of women were studied: pregnant during IVF, with normal (PN, n = 9) and increased (BMI > 25 kg/m2) body weight (BW) (PI, n = 7), and nonpregnant during IVF, with normal (nPN, n = 16) and increased BW (nPI, n = 21).
Results: In PN group, leptin level was higher than in nPN group (p < .05). In the PI and nPI groups, it did not differ, but was higher than in women with normal BW. In PN group, ghrelin level was lower than in nPN group (p < .05), while in the PI and nPI groups it was comparable. The leptin/ghrelin ratio in PN group was higher than in nPN group (18.10 ± 3.38 vs. 3.93 ± 0.60, p < .05), but lower than in the PI (31.70 ± 15.38) and nPI (24.30 ± 3.45) groups. The leptin/adiponectin ratio in PN group was also higher than in nPN group (6.97 ± 0.64 vs. 2.95 ± 0.39, p < .05), but lower than in the PI (13.60 ± 1.59) and nPI (10.86 ± 0.87) groups. Adiponectin levels differed only between the nPN and nPI groups. In women with normal BW, odds ratio showed that the leptin/ghrelin ratio has the greatest prognostic value for predicting the success of IVF outcomes (OR: 29.53; CI: 1.53-570.83, p =.025) among other indicators. In women with increased BW, none of the indicators had predictive value.
Conclusion: The follicular leptin/ghrelin ratio is a suitable indicator for predicting IVF outcomes in women with normal BW.
Keywords: In vitro fertilization; adiponectin; follicular fluid; ghrelin; leptin; pregnancy.