The levels of maternal immunostimulation (required throughout the gestation
period) and immunosuppression (needed from the 8th week to labour), as
assessed by the mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR), have been successfully
correlated with the outcome of pregnancy. Our laboratory has recently reported
that serum-soluble human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class I and II concentrations
can be predictive for successful pregnancy outcome. In fact, there is a direct
correlation between soluble class II concentrations and maternal
immunostimulation because, as expected, these serum HLA concentrations are
augmented in the first and second trimester of pregnancy and remain stable
thereafter. By the same token, serum HLA class I concentrations are low during
the first trimester, correlating with the required absence of
immunosuppression, whereas they increase in subsequent trimesters as
suppression becomes desirable for counteracting the maternal stimulation,
which may otherwise become dangerous to the fetus. In this study, we present
biological and statistical evidence that both states of maternal
immunostimulation and immunosuppression, reflected by serum soluble HLA class
II and class I antigens, do correlate with results obtained by standard MLR
and can be predictive of pregnancy failure. The establishment of statistically
significant correlations renders the measurement of soluble HLA a reliable
test for determining the immunological status of the gestating woman. The
unambiguous advantage of such an approach is that soluble HLA testing will no
longer require the 1 week delay necessary to obtain MLR results, a period
occasionally crucial for applying treatment to women whose immunological
indices call for immediate therapeutic intervention.
P-C1-38 Determination of non-random distributions of HLA class I and class II molecules in the membrane of human lymphoblastoid cells using scanning force microscopy
