Infertility specialists believe they might have an answer for women prone to having miscarriages - natural killer cells.

With no scientific evidence to back up their suspicions, they are willing - but extremely cautious - to treat women like a 31-year-old Johannesburg businesswoman who has been trying to have a baby for four and a half years, but has too many NK cells.

The woman, who wants to be known only as Chantal, said: "I've done pregnancy tests each month, but to see the stick with the one line on it, instead of two, can crush you," she said.

Dr Merwyn Jacobson, medical director of Vitalab centre for assisted conception in Johannesburg, said: "We're trying to find explanations for things we don't understand. We may be way out and have to eat humble pie, but that's our thinking as of now."

During early pregnancy there is a dramatic increase in the number of NK cells, which search for and destroy harmful cells in the body.
Based on research by controversial British infertility specialist Dr George Ndukwe, Jacobson and his colleagues Dr Lawrence Gobetz and Dr Stephen Volschenk think over-reactive NK cells in the uterus attach to the growing embryo and destroy it because the killer cells view it as an "invader".

My notes: I have been espousing this pathomechanism for years. Herbs help to mitigate activate natural killer cells in addition to IVIG or intralipid therapy. mike berkley, L.AC., FABORM