Shreetha Ramasubramanian

My research investigates the significance of impaired immune tolerance for infertility in men and women. Immune tolerance is important for individual fertility status and might have an additive effect on conception outcomes as a couple.

Maternal T cells can recognise paternal antigens expressed by the embryo and a system to suppress this effector function is vital for successful pregnancy outcomes. The activity of regulatory T cells or Treg cells is essential for this immune modulation and homeostasis. The abundance of Treg cells might decline due to lifestyle or environmental factors and insufficient anti-inflammatory activity of Treg cells maybe a contributing factor to infertility or subfertility in men and women.

Clinically, male fertility status investigation is limited to semen analysis using WHO guidelines. However, meeting the WHO standards is not as assurance of fertility. While there is evidence supporting the association between seminal fluid and T cell parameters, specifically Treg cell population in peripheral blood of men, the correlation has not been fully understood. Our research aims to evaluate the seminal fluid and Treg cell parameters in men attending a reproductive medicine clinic for treatment of infertility and to correlate these findings to couple immune compatibility.