LifeQuest Centre for Reproductive Medicine

This is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) multi-centre international study involving pregnant women with Antiphospholipid antibodies and/or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). It is an observational study and Dr. Carl Laskin is the only Canadian investigator participating in recruiting patients for this study. Women are eligble for this study if they: are known to have antiphospholipid antibodies and/or lupus: are between the ages of 18-45 years; and are < 13 weeks gestation with a single pregnancy. The purpose of the study is to understand if certain proteins in the blood, called complement split products, are predicitive of whether or not women with lupus and women with antiphosphoplipid antibodies will have a healthy pregnancy. The study involves followup by both the patient's obstetrician as well as Dr. Laskin throughout the pregnancy and for 3 months postpartum. For more information regarding the PROMISSE study or if you would like to be referred for consideration, please contact Karen Spitzer at 416-593-6433.

T.E.R.M. Programme: Dr. Carl Laskin, Director and Managing Partner at LifeQuest, has had a clinical research programme in effect for more than 20 years investigating causes of recurrent miscarriage. The T.E.R.M. programme (Treatment and Evaluation of Recurrent Miscarriage) recently completed a large randomized clinical trial (the HepASA trial) that compared two treatment protocols for women with a history of recurrent miscarriage. Women in that study had specific autoantibodies in their blood (antiphospholipid antibodies) that could interfere with fetal development either early in the pregnancy, preventing proper embryo implantation, or later on, interfering with blood supply to the growing fetus.

The T.E.R.M. Programme is currently the only Canadian centre participating in an international observational 5-year trial funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US called the PROMISSE study. Blood and urine samples are collected throughout pregnancy from women with and without a history of pregnancy loss and autoimmune disease. The samples are monitored for the presence of autoantibodies and proteins involved in the coagulation process in an attempt to better understand their role in pregnancy loss. Dr. Laskin’s research lab is one of three international core labs for this study, receiving plasma samples weekly from around the US and from our own patients, and testing them for coagulation proteins.

Read more about this programme.

Freezing oocytes is an ongoing project at LifeQuest. Since the first live birth of a baby from our method in 2004, we are continuing with this study on a case-by-case basis. Our method is a modification of the ‘slow freezing’ method used by Italian researchers in 2002 (Fabri et al). This process will eventually allow fertility preservation, and the possibility of banking donated oocytes in the same way sperm banks are available to patients.

Sperm Chromatin structure is an area of interest at LifeQuest. We have embarked on a controlled, randomized trial with the Urology department at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. During this trial, we are hoping to measure and compare sperm chromatin structure of ejaculated and testicular sperm specimens so that we may predict the quality of a specimen used for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Measuring chromatin structure shows the susceptibility of the sperm to damage. Recent literature has shown high levels of chromatin damage in the sperm can adversely affect embryo quality and implantation success.