No increased histocompatibility antigen-sharing in couples with idiopathic habitual abortions

Abstract

Sharing of major histocompatibility antigens between spouses has been claimed to play an aetiological role in couples with unexplained, habitual spontaneous abortions. On the other hand there is evidence that a subset of habitually aborting women exists, in whom autoimmune aberrations seem to be of importance. In the present study, 56 couples with unexplained habitual abortions were histocompatibility typed for HLA-A, -B and -DR specificities, as were a group of 33 fertile control couples with two or more children and no spontaneous abortions. The DR-typing was done partly by use of the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). There was no significant difference in the distribution of histocompatibility antigens between the habitually aborting women and the control women. No increased HLA-antigen sharing could be demonstrated between spouses in aborting couples compared with controls, neither in each single locus nor in the combination of all loci (all P-values greater than 0.2). Neither could any increased HLA-antigen sharing in sub-groups of aborting couples with and without autoimmunity be demonstrated. It can be concluded from these data that compatibility between spouses for HLA-A, -B and DR-antigens per se only plays a minor role in the aetiology of habitual abortion.

14th International HLA and Immunogenetics Workshop: Report from the reproductive immunology component

“…HLA-DQA1*0505), to predispose to abortion when shared between partners (2)(3)(4). The above suggestions have not been widely accepted, given the controversial results provided by different studies (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14).…”

Immunological Analogy Between Allograft Rejection, Recurrent Abortion and Pre-Eclampsia – the Same Basic Mechanism?

“…However, there are still some doubts concerning this approach, as some proofs speak against it. Firstly, the classical HLA antigens are not expressed on the surface of trophoblast [1], secondly, the HLA-sharing between partners does not influence fetal survival [2,3], and lastly, so-called blocking anti-HLA antibodies seem to have no impact on the pregnancy outcome [4,5,6]. According to some authors [7], recurrent miscarriage is the result of an increase in activity of the innate immune system, especially NK cells [8,9,10], and organ specific autoimmunity, whose contribution is indicated by a higher prevalence of autoantibodies [11,12] and association with particular maternal class II HLA genotypes [13].…”

Genetic factors influencing recurrent pregnancy loss: lessons learnt from recent studies

“…Adapted wih permission from [101]. www.expert-reviews.com Review and -DR antigens only plays a minor role in the etiology of RM [37]. The results of the Aruna et al [27] study are somewhat concurrent to the study of Christiansen et al [37] in reporting a nonsignificant increase in HLA antigen sharing (HLA-DQ and -DR) between couples experiencing RM compared with controls.…”