concanavalin-a and Abortion--Habitual

The lymphocyte subsets, activation marker expression and activity of ConA-treated lymphocytes have been studied in 58 patients with a history of unexplainable pregnancy loss (UPL) and 22 normal pregnant women (control) in 4-7 weeks of pregnancy. The increase of CD16/56+ cell level and CD4+/ CD8+ ratio and decrease of CD19+ cell level have been found in peripheral blood of UPL patients in comparison with control. The expression of HLA-DR was upregulated on CD3+ and CD8+ cells and the expression of CD25 was downregulated on CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, and CD16/56+ cells in UPL women. According to correlation analysis results, low expression of CD25 was related to a low expression of CD8 on NK, high expression of CD45RA on CD4+ helper cells, high expression of HLA-DR on CD8+ cytotoxic cells. High frequency of ConA-induced activation, low frequency of ConA-induced suppression and low suppressive activity of ConA-induced lymphocyte were found in UPL patients compared to control.. women with UPL have disorders in feto-maternal recognition in early pregnancy that led to a development of the inadequate immune response to fetus realized as a defect of NK activation, deficiency of T-cytotoxic cell limitation and memory helper cell generation, downregulation of TR cells and suppressor function.

Topics: Abortion, Habitual; Antigens, CD; Biomarkers; Case-Control Studies; Concanavalin A; Female; HLA-DR Antigens; Humans; Immunologic Memory; In Vitro Techniques; Lymphocyte Activation; Pregnancy; T-Lymphocyte Subsets; T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory

Changes in lymphocyte subsets in whole blood were analyzed sequentially by flow cytometry with an automated leukocyte differential system in 15 patients with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortions, each of whom underwent vaccination(s) with her husband's lymphocytes. Mitogen responses of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were also examined in these patients. The reactivity of PBL against mitogens revealed no significant change in each patient before and after vaccination(s) with her husband's lymphocytes. The CD4:8 ratio was observed to decrease significantly during 22 and 28 days after the first vaccination with a significant increase in the percentage of T suppressor-cytotoxic (CD8) cells. This change was also observed after the second vaccination. The percentages of other subsets did not change significantly after vaccination(s). In 11 patients out of 15, the pregnancy continued successfully and correlated with a predominance of Ts/c (CD8) over TH/I (CD4) cells in the first trimester. These changes in lymphocyte subsets may indicate the induction of immune enhancing mechanisms and it is suggested that continuation of the predominance of Ts/c cells induced by immunotherapy might be important for the successful maintenance of pregnancy.

Topics: Abortion, Habitual; Adult; Antigens, CD; Antigens, Differentiation; B-Lymphocytes; CD57 Antigens; Concanavalin A; Female; HLA-DR Antigens; Humans; Immunity, Cellular; Immunotherapy; Killer Cells, Natural; Lymphocyte Subsets; Phytohemagglutinins; Pokeweed Mitogens; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Trimester, First; Time Factors