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Objective: To examine the relationship between Vitamin B(12) deficiency and early recurrent abortion (ERA) or very early recurrent abortion (VERA) abortion around 5 weeks of amenorrhea., Study Design: Serum B(12), folate and homocysteine levels were carried out in 110 consecutive women with unexplained ERA or VERA and in 96 women with one or more children and no abortion history., Results: Ten women were found to have low serum B(12) levels versus one in the control group. A total of 50% of these had raised homocysteine. No difference was noticed between cases and controls for folate. Among women with low serum B(12) level and ERA, 87.5% of the abortions were VERA. Vitamin B(12) supplementation led to four normal pregnancies in five women who became pregnant again. In a statistical analysis performed on five studies in which serum B(12) was assayed in ERA, including ours, a significant relationship was found between ERA and Vitamin B(12) deficiency., Conclusion: Vitamin B(12) deficiency may be involved in ERA. Vitamin B(12) assay should be done in ERA women whether or not hematological abnormalities are present., (Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.)

Problem: Fas antigen (APO-1/CD95) can regulate the activity of various cells during adulthood. This study aimed at determining whether Fas may also be involved in the regulation of very early events such as the embryo preimplantation stage., Method of Study: We used mouse embryo stem (ES) cell line as a model for testing the effect of Fas crosslinking upon anti-Fas monoclonal antibody (MoAb) treatment. In addition, this treatment was also applied to in-vitro mouse-embryo culture., Results: Flow-cytometry analysis of cultured ES cells demonstrated an increase in Fas expression. unchanged in the presence of mouse interleukin-2, while greatly upregulated in the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). As determined by various means, ES cells may undergo a Fas-mediated apoptosis, slightly but significantly intensified by the addition of LPS to cell cultures. We also report that anti-Fas MoAb directly inhibited two-cell stage mouse-embryo (preimplantation) development in in-vitro culture conditions., Conclusion: These data suggest a novel mechanism controlling the regulation of physiological cell turnover as well as blastocyst implantation in early embryo development.