Effect of Low Level Laser Therapy on Endometrial Cells: An In Vitro Study

Plan of work:

A number of 40 human endometrial samples will be collected from 40 infertile women attending the infertility clinic at the National Research Center (each sample will be divided into 3 culture plates; single exposure group, multiple exposure group and control group) and will be included in the study.

Each human endometrial sample will be divided into 3 plates, in order to establish 3 main groups of 40 culture plates for single laser exposure group versus 40 culture plates for multiple laser exposure group and 40 tissue culture plates for control samples, thus a total of 120 tissue culture plates will be studied, the study groups will be exposed to low level laser therapy and compared to their matched controls.

Timing of endometrial tissue sample:

Endometrial tissue biopsy will be performed in the early proliferative phase just after menstruation ceases (from day 5 to day8).

Consent A written informed consent will be obtained from each woman before the procedure. The consent will explain the purpose from the procedure, the aim from the research and the possible side effects.

Endometrial cell culture:

Endometrial biopsy strips will be collected from women included in the study. The endometrial biopsy strips will be taken from the uterine wall using pipelle.

Endometrial tissue will be transported to the laboratory in isolation media. Endometrial tissue will be stored at 4°C, and processed within 2-10 h.

Clusters of cells will be considered colonies when they become visible macroscopically and contain greater than 50 cells.

The same culture condition will be applied to both study and control samples. The tissue culture will be discarded after 14 days when the study will be completed.

Low level laser therapy will be wavelength 635nm diode laser, power of 40mw will be tested on cultured endometrial cells in Petri dish S.A. of 9.62cm2 with fluence rate of 4.2 J/cm2 in the continuous mode, depth of penetration at 635nm ranges from 1 to 6mm.

Tissue cultures in the study group will be divided into 2 groups; The 1st group will be composed of 40 tissue culture plates and will be exposed to the total fluence dose 4.2 J/cm2 in a single session of 16 minutes duration with low level therapy machine adjusted at power of 40mw. The 2nd group will be composed of another 40 tissue culture plates, they will be exposed to the same fluence rate but in multiple sessions ''3 sessions'', which will be performed every other day, each session will last for approximately 5.34 minutes using low level laser of power of 40mw to reach the same fluence dose of 4.2 J/cm2 after finishing the 3rd session.

Single versus multiple exposures of LLLT will be tested in the endometrial culture plates and will be compared to control group not exposed to laser. Comparison between single session exposure and multiple sessions' exposure is important in order to determine the benefits over the risk of multiple exposures sessions in thin endometrium in vivo, being an invasive procedure and requiring a fibro-optic probe insertion inside the uterus which might cause some discomfort to the patient and could be affected by patient's compliance.

RT-PCR Analysis technique and steps:

Real time PCR will be used to screen and detect the presence of endometrial implantation markers namely the expression of Integrin aVB3 "alpha v B3", MUC-1, LIF and also the expression of PTEN tumor suppressor gene as an early marker for premalignant endometrial disease.

Electron microscopy; Cells in tissue culture will be examined by electron microscope in order to detect the presence of pinopodes as a marker of increased endometrial receptivity.