Toxemia of pregnancy. Part II. Immunofluorescent studies with placental connective tissue antisera: the possibility of characteristic lesions.
Seventeen placentas from term gestation complicated by toxemia of pregnancy and 17 normal controls were tested by the fluorescent antibody technic. Antisera to normal placental connective tissue and toxemic placental connective tissue were used. The antisera were obtained by the injection into rabbits of placental extracts rich in connective tissue elements from normal and toxemic placentas. The antitoxemic antisera, after absorption with soluble sonic fraction of normal placentas, stained the following elements exclusively in 14 of the 17 placentas: part of the syncytial knots, fibrillar elements in the adventitia of blood vessels, and amorphous deposition of connective tissue. In each of the remaining three placentas at least two of the lesions were observed. The observation of bright fluorescence in part of the syncytiotrophoblasts and the syncytial knots in toxemic placentas led to the suggestion that they arise late in pregnancy during the disease. The thin fibrillar elements and the amorphous deposition of connective tissue were documented in the various developmental stages in toxemic and normal placentas as well. These findings established possible characteristic lesions in the placenta of pregnancies complicated by toxemia.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000941:Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D003238:Connective Tissue / Q000276:immunology; D004461:Eclampsia / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D010920:Placenta / Q000276:immunology*; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000276:immunology*; D011247:Pregnancy
D000941:Antigens