Immunotherapy with husband's leukocytes to primary habitual aborters and autoantibodies in their sera.

OBJECTIVE

This study was performed to determine whether primary habitual aborters have an autoimmunological tendency and whether immunotherapy with leukocytes induces autoantibodies in their sera.

METHODS

We measured the levels of antiphospholipid antibodies (APAs) and antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) in the sera of 65 primary habitual aborters. Among them, 8 primary habitual aborters received immunotherapy with their respective husband's leukocytes; these 8 patients were followed up for autoantibodies in their sera before immunotherapy, at the time of pregnancy permission, during the first trimester of pregnancy, at delivery, and postpartum.

RESULTS

Sixty-nine percent of the 65 primary habitual aborters were positive for IgG or IgM antibodies to at least 1 of 6 phospholipids, and 29% of them were positive for ANAs. Although the pregnancy outcomes of the 8 primary habitual aborters after immunotherapy were good, their APAs and ANAs converted to positive after the immunotherapy.

CONCLUSION

Immunotherapy with leukocytes should be performed after checking and confirming the absence of autoantibodies in the sera of a habitual aborter.