Maternal Th1- and Th2-type reactivity to placental antigens in normal human pregnancy and unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortions.
Spontaneous abortion is the most common complication of pregnancy, but the etiology of a significant proportion of abortions is still unknown. We have examined the production of Th1- and Th2-type cytokines by women with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) since it appears that successful murine pregnancy occurs in a Th2-dominant situation and that Th1-type immunity is associated with pregnancy failure. We have compared maternal reactivity toward placental antigens in women with a history of successful pregnancy with that in women with a history of RSA. This was done by coculturing maternal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) with autologous placental cells and also by stimulating maternal PBMC with antigens from a choriocarcinoma cell line of trophoblastic origin. We detected significantly greater levels of the Th2 cytokines IL-6 and IL-10 in normal pregnancy compared to unexplained RSA and significantly higher levels of the Th1 cytokine IFN-gamma in RSA compared to normal pregnancy. These results suggest that women with normal pregnancy have a higher Th2 bias, while women with a history of RSA evince a bias toward Th1-type reactivity.
Raghupathy
R
R
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University.
Makhseed
M
M
Azizieh
F
F
Hassan
N
N
Al-Azemi
M
M
Al-Shamali
E
E
D000026:Abortion, Habitual / Q000276:immunology*; D000328:Adult; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology; D002822:Choriocarcinoma / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000097:blood; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000097:blood; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood; D010920:Placenta / Q000276:immunology*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000276:immunology*; D011252:Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D011261:Pregnancy Trimester, First; D011263:Pregnancy Trimester, Third; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D014327:Trophoblasts / Q000276:immunology; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000032:analysis; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D015850:Interleukin-6; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D016753:Interleukin-10; D007371:Interferon-gamma