CHARACTERIZATION OF ANTIBODIES INDUCED BY PATERNAL LYMPHOCYTE IMMUNIZATION IN COUPLES WITH RECURRENT SPONTANEOUS-ABORTION

This study was designed to identify and characterize the allo- and aut oantibodies induced following successful paternal lymphocyte immunizat ion to prevent recurrent spontaneous abortion. Firstly the titers of m aternal anti-paternal antibodies in women with successful pregnancies as determined by the flow cytometry crossmatch (FCXM) were highly vari able; however, in all cases, the initial pre-immunization titers were negative and the post-immunization titers were positive by the FCXM in successfully treated women. Secondly, the specificities of maternal a lloantibodies to paternal HLA antigens (immunogen) were evaluated. Not all predicted antibodies to mismatched paternal HLA antigens were fou nd by microlymphocytotoxicity (MCX) assays and the specificities varie d. Thirdly, antibodies in post- but not preimmunization sera reacted w ith two lymphoid cell lines, SupT1 and SB; in addition, the rise and f all of the titers of these sera with paternal cells seemed to be refle cted with the cell lines by the FCXM. Fourthly, autoantibodies to acti vated lymphocytes were detected and seemed to correlate with successfu l immunization since women who had another abortion following immunoth erapy lacked these autoantibodies. These findings suggest that the ant ibody response following successful immunotherapy is complex and needs to be studied further to understand the mechanism of this treatment.