Fetal Nutrition, Metabolism, and Immunology pp 315-321 | Cite as
A Cell-Mediated Immune Defect in Recurrent Spontaneous Abortion
Abstract
Recurrent spontaneous abortion in certain women is associated with an increased frequency of histocompatibility (HLA) antigen sharing with their husbands (Komlos and Halbrecht, 1979; Mclntyre and Faulk, 1982a). Our studies of the HLA profiles of spontaneous aborting women and their husbands have revealed couples who do not share common HLA types, yet their clinical histories do not differ remarkably from those who do share. In an attempt to identify some of the immunological characteristics of abortion-prone couples, we have studied the response of husband and wife lymphocytes to each other as well as to controls in oneway mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC) reactions. In this report, we confirm that many aborting couples share HLA antigens. Furthermore, we provide additional data to show that spontaneously-aborted pregnancies can be ascribed to some women who do not share HLA identity with their husbands when measured by the standard complement-dependent cytotoxicity assays, but these women demonstrate a sub-optimal or total lack of cellular responsiveness to their mates in one-way MLC reactions. These data suggest that many abortion-prone couples may share the HLA-D locus antigens without sharing at the HLA-DR locus.
Keywords
None None Recurrent Spontaneous Abortion Mixed Lymphocyte Culture Habitual Abortion Antigen SharingPreview
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