Behrouz Gharesi-Fard; Jaleh Zolghadri; Leila Foroughinia; Fahimeh Tavazoo; Alamtaj Samsami Dehaghani
Volume 4, Issue 3 , December 2007, , Pages 173-178
Abstract
Background: Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) is defined as three or more se-quential abortions before the twentieth week of gestation. There are evidences to sup-port an allo-immunologic mechanism for RSA. One of the methods for treatment of RSA is leukocyte therapy; however there is still controversy ...
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Background: Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) is defined as three or more se-quential abortions before the twentieth week of gestation. There are evidences to sup-port an allo-immunologic mechanism for RSA. One of the methods for treatment of RSA is leukocyte therapy; however there is still controversy about effectiveness of this method. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of leukocyte therapy for treatment of RSA. Methods: Ninety two non-pregnant women with at least three sequential abor-tions (60 primary & 32 secondary aborters) recognized as RSA were referred to our Laboratory for immunotherapy. All the cases were immunized by isolated lymphocytes from their husbands. Fifty to 100 million washed and resuspended mononuclear cells were injected by I.V., S.C., and I.D. route. The result of each injection was checked by WBC cross matching between couples after four weeks of injections. Immunization was repeated in fifth week to a maximum of 3 times if needed. Eighty one age-matched non-pregnant RSA women (52 primary and 29 secondary aborters) with at least three se-quential abortions were also included in this study as controls. The control group was not immunized. Results: 67 out of 92 (72.8%) immunized cases and 44 out of 81 con-trols (54.3%) showed a successful outcome of pregnancy (p<0.02). Comparison of pri-mary and secondary aborters indicated a significantly better outcome only in primary (75% vs. 42.3%. p<0.001) but not in secondary aborters (68.8% vs. 75.9%, p = 0.7). Conclusion: The present investigation showed the effectiveness of leukocyte therapy in primary but not in secondary RSA patients. Despite the current controversy and limita-tion of leukocyte therapy in RSA, the results of our investigation provide evidence sup-porting the use of allo-immunization in improving the outcome of pregnancy in primary RSA patients.
Alireza Andalib; Abbas Rezaie; Farzad Oreizy; Sima Baluchi
Volume 2, Issue 4 , December 2005, , Pages 213-219
Abstract
Background: Human peripheral blood NK cells constitutively express CD56 and CD16 antigens. Peripheral blood NK cells seem to be strongly related with decidual NK cells, and may reflect the decidual NK cell functional status. There are varied reports concerning the relationship between NK cell cytotoxicity ...
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Background: Human peripheral blood NK cells constitutively express CD56 and CD16 antigens. Peripheral blood NK cells seem to be strongly related with decidual NK cells, and may reflect the decidual NK cell functional status. There are varied reports concerning the relationship between NK cell cytotoxicity in women with recurrent spontaneous abortion. Objective: To study NK activity in women with history of RSA by using a non-radioactive cytotoxicity assay. Methods: Peripheral blood lymphocytes from RSA and healthy multiparous women were obtained. Lymphocytes were isolated and mixed with K562 NK-sensitive cell line. A non-radioactive method for NK cell cytotoxicity assessment was utilized. Dead K562 cell populations were detected by FACS Calibur flow cytometry, and the data obtained was analysed on cell-Quest software. The proportion of CD16+ /CD56+ cells was then calculated. Results: The proportion of NK cells were 9.21% ± 3.06 and 13.48% ± 4.09 in healthy women and RSA, respectively. The percentage of cytotoxicity was determined to be 19.3% ± 3.9 in healthy group and 27.1% ± 6.5 in RSA group with an effector:target ratio of 50:1. The data shows an increase in PBLs potential for in vitro cytotoxicity assay in RSA individuals. The analyses indicate that there is a weak positive correlation between NK cytotoxicity potential and the percentage of NK cells in PBL population. Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that the percentage of CD56+ /CD16+ cells increases in individuals with recurrent spontaneous abortion. We conclude that NK cytotoxicity as well as NK number is partially involved in RSA.
