The effect of hepatitis B virus infected embryos on pregnancy outcome

ObjectiveHBV vertical transmission is the main reason for chronic HBV infection, but there is no clear conclusion about the effect of HBV infection on pregnancy outcome. This study aimed to investigate the effect of HBV-infected embryos on pregnancy outcome.Study design75 couples who received ART treatment were followed up. Among them were 25 couples (group A) with at least the husband or wife infected with HBV, and 50 couples (group B) with negative serum HBV markers of both husband and wife. The clinical pregnancy rate, early abortion rate, neonatal malformation rate, neonatal HBV infection rate, and HBV infection rate of the six-month-old infant were compared between these two groups, and Fisher's exact test was applied. HBV mRNA in abandoned embryos of the patients was detected by single-cell RT-PCR.ResultsBoth the early abortion rate and the abortion rate with the mother infected HBV in group A were significantly higher than in group B (P = 0.043, P = 0.030 respectively). The clinical pregnancy rates of groups A and B were 36% and 44% respectively (P = 0.248 > 0.05). The neonatal malformation rate, neonatal HBV infection rate, and HBV infection rate of six-month-old infants in group A and group B were all 0. Specific HBV mRNA fragments were detected in 6 cases of 62 cleavage embryos in group A, giving a positive rate of 9.7%. The positive rates with mother infected and father infected with HBV were 13.2% (5/38) and 5.6% (1/18) respectively.ConclusionsHBV infection can increase the early abortion rate of pregnancy, and the reason may be related to HBV-infected embryos.