Twelve patients with recurrent abortion who had shown positive antiphospholipid antibodies were treated through the administration of a Japanese modified traditional Chinese herbal medicine Sairei-To (Chan ling-Tang) The patients had experienced a total of 27 spontaneous abortions in their previous pregnancies and had no other pregnancy history except for one patient. The patients were treated with 9.0 g of Sairei-To per day before their next pregnancy. The positive value of antiphospholipid antibodies returned to negative in 9 patients out of 12 patients through the treatment. Out of 12 patients, in 10 patients, their new pregnancy continued uneventfully and delivered an offspring (Success rate: 83.3%). Thus, the current treatment was considered to be an effective therapy for patients with recurrent abortion who were found to be positive for antiphospholipid antibodies.

No abstract

These findings suggest that HLA-DRB1*1502 might be a risk allele for unexplained recurrent abortion in the Japanese population.

These findings suggest a possible new class II association with patient population of unexplained recurrent abortion.

These data suggest that women who have the HLA-DQB1*04 allele might be susceptible to preeclampsia.

An increasing number of reports suggest that endometriosis is associated with abnormal immune function, although the etiology of the disease remains undefined. The human leukocyte antigen system (HLA) is known to play a role in the etiology of a number of diseases. This study examines the possible association between the HLA system and endometriosis. Fifty-five patients diagnosed with endometriosis by laparoscopic examination were typed for HLA class I antigens – HLA-A, -B, and -C antigens – using the standard microlymphocytotoxity technique of Terasaki. The frequency of HLA-B 54 and that of HLA-Cw7 were significantly higher in the patient population than in the control population. No significant difference was found between the two groups in the frequencies of the other HLA-class I antigens. The results of this study may implicate the HLA system in the development of endometriosis.

A pregnant woman was referred to our hospital at the 29th week of gestation with the symptom of polyhydramnios; diaphragmatic herniation of the fetus was suspected. Fetal chromosome anlaysis was performed using fibroblasts obtained by aminocentesis, and mosaicism of 46,XX and isochromosome of 12p were diagnosed. Out of 50 karyotyped cells, 19 (38.0%) showed the tetrasomy of the isochromosome of 12p. The mother vaginally delivered a baby girl who died just after delivery. The analysis of cord blood lymphocytes revealed only 0.5% incidence of tetrasomy of 12p. The incidence of tetrasomy was 8.0% for the placental chorionic villi, 48.0% for the fibroblasts obtained from the umbilical cord, and 70.0% for the skin fibroblasts. Thus, the diagnosis of Pallister-Killian Syndrome (PKS) is confirmed by mosaicism of i(12p), that is, the affected patients exhibit tissue-specific mosaicism, with the abnormal karyotype expression in limited lymphocytes, but marked in fibroblasts.

A triplet pregnancy in a 23-year-old woman was terminated at 15 weeks of gestation because of her severe hypertension, lung edema, and secondary hyperthyroidism. The pregnancy consisted of a hydatidiform mole with a 46,XY karyotype and two fetuses each with 46,XX and a 46,XY karyotype. To determine the zygosity and genetic origin of the mole and fetuses, PCR- and computer-assisted genotyping were performed at 27 CA-repeat marker loci that were distributed evenly over the genome. As a result, genotypes of the three pregnancy products were distinct from each other, indicating that the triplets were trizygotic. The mole lacked any maternal alleles but inherited both of the paternal alleles and/or one paternal allele in duplicate. This, along with the XY sex chromosome constitution, indicated that the mole resulted from dispermic androgenesis. The mother developed a persistent trophoblastic tumor thereafter.