Awards and distinctions

Arturo Reyes Palomares, a graduate in biology from the University of Malaga, who is currently part of the team at the Clínicas Rincón Fertility Institute, has been awarded at the XXVII annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) held in Stockholm , for her presentation on the influence of genetic variants in the promoter of the serotonin transporter gene on pregnancy outcomes in women undergoing egg donation treatments.

The work is the result of collaboration in research applied to medicine between Clínicas Rincón and the group led by Professor Armando Reyes Engel, director of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Malaga. The aforementioned collaboration began a few years ago and its results have gradually acquired greater relevance, especially in the area of ​​reproductive medicine, to the point of having won the most important prize among 1,500 papers sent from different parts of the world to the congress. annual ESHRE. This meeting is the most important event on assisted human reproduction at an international level, which this year was held in Stockholm and in which there is usually a very high participation of attendees related to the field of reproductive medicine.

In the work presented by the Clínicas Rincón Fertility Institute together with the University of Málaga, it is framed within the area of ​​reproductive medicine. Specifically, a strong association has been found between the presence of a genetic variant in those women who suffer an early pregnancy loss, after having undergone in vitro fertilization treatment with donor eggs. The genetic variant studied associated with the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) is common in the population and is known to affect the regulation of serotonin. Based on the results of the award-winning work, it seems that certain combinations could have important effects on embryo implantation.

One of the most innovative aspects of the work is to propose a hypothetical incompatibility between the genetic load of the recipient and the donor of the eggs, in which the availability of serotonin for the embryo could be altered, which seems to have an important role in the first events of pregnancy as demonstrated by some works on which the study is based.

The discovery opens new avenues to study the mechanism of embryonic implantation, in addition to studying the possibility of using therapeutic targets that allow improving the efficiency of assisted reproduction treatments. The fact of finding genetic combinations that may be incompatible between the recipient and the egg donor is another example of developing clinical strategies integrated into the healthcare framework of personalized medicine, as Clínicas Rincón has been promoting for some years.

The Fertility Institute of Clínicas Rincón achieves the first prize for the best clinical communication presented at the congress of the Spanish Fertility Society (SEF 2012) which was held every two years and on this occasion was held during the past 16, 17 and 18 May at the Granada Congress Palace.

This is the second award received in less than a year by our embryologist Arturo Reyes Palomares and his team, after having achieved the prestigious “Fertility Society Australian Exchange Award” at the last annual congress of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). in Stockholm.

The work was initially presented to the national congress of the SEF and its scientific committee decided to present it as a presentation. The prize was awarded for the presentation of new results that expand the line on the genetic variants that influence serotonin metabolism and their possible consequences on assisted reproduction treatments. Specifically, the research, which is carried out in collaboration with the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Malaga, has found a strong association between two genetic variants related to the rate of serotonin internalization in cells and Pregnancy losses that occur very early in women who have undergone in vitro fertilization processes.

The president of the SEF, Federico Milan, announced the award decision during the closing ceremony of the SEF2012 congress. Later, during the gala dinner, the president of the scientific committee, Alberto Romeu, and Federico Milan himself, presented the award.