Clinical and immunologic aspects of egg donation pregnancies: a systematic review

Egg donation (ED) makes it possible for subfertile women to conceive. Pregnancies achieved using ED with unrelated donors are unique, since the entire fetal genome is allogeneic to the mother. The aims of this review were to evaluate the consequences of ED pregnancies and to place them in the special context of their atypical immunologic relationships.

This review comprised an online search of English language publications listed in Pubmed/Medline, up to 29 January 2010. Seventy-nine papers met inclusion criteria. Using the literature and the authors' own experience, the relevant data on pregnancy outcome and complications, placental pathology and immunology were evaluated.

Multiple studies document that ED pregnancies are associated with a higher incidence of pregnancy-induced hypertension and placental pathology. The incidence of other perinatal complications, such as intrauterine growth restriction, prematurity and congenital malformations, is comparable to conventional IVF. During pregnancy, both local and systemic immunologic changes occur and in ED pregnancies these changes are more pronounced. There is almost no information in the literature on the long-term complications of ED pregnancies for the mother.

ED pregnancies have a higher risk of maternal morbidity. Owing to the high degree of antigenic dissimilarity, ED pregnancies represent an interesting model to study complex immunologic interactions, as the fully allogeneic fetus is not rejected but tolerated by the pregnant woman. Knowledge of the immune system in ED pregnancies has broader significance, as it may also give insight into immunologic aspects of tolerance in solid organ transplantation.