Immunogenicity of the soluble isoforms of HLA‐G
Soluble class Ib HLA‐G glycoproteins synthesized in the placenta are abundant in the pregnant uterus and circulate in maternal blood throughout pregnancy. To establish immunogenicity of these proteins, we tested sera from 64 women with at least one successful pregnancy (multigravid), 21 women who ha...
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Published in | Molecular human reproduction Vol. 9; no. 11; pp. 729 - 735 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford
Oxford University Press
01.11.2003
Oxford Publishing Limited (England) |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Soluble class Ib HLA‐G glycoproteins synthesized in the placenta are abundant in the pregnant uterus and circulate in maternal blood throughout pregnancy. To establish immunogenicity of these proteins, we tested sera from 64 women with at least one successful pregnancy (multigravid), 21 women who had never been pregnant, and 54 males for antibodies to epitopes present on recombinant sHLA‐G isoforms (sHLA‐G1, sHLA‐G2) derived from HLA 6.0 cDNA (HLA‐G*0101 allele). By indirect enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, antibodies to sHLA‐G isoforms were identified in six sera, all from multigravid women; all other sera were negative (P = 0.0083). Immunoblots showed that two of the positive sera reacted exclusively with sHLA‐G1 and ‐G2 whereas four reacted to both sHLA‐G and pooled HLA class I antigens. To establish potential relationships between anti‐sHLA‐G and exposure to foreign paternal alleles (*0101, *0103, *0104, *0106), all multigravid women and their partners were genotyped. No relationship between allelic disparity and antibody production was identified. Taken together, these results indicate that (i) tolerance to HLA‐G is the usual condition as antibodies to HLA‐G were not detected in 91% (58/64) multigravid women, and (ii) pregnancy stimulates loss of tolerance in 9% (6/64) of multigravid women. All six women delivered healthy babies, demonstrating that maternal antibodies to epitopes on sHLA‐G do not abrogate pregnancy. |
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Bibliography: | ark:/67375/HXZ-T9D39LG2-G istex:1C66AA866382B4A97620FBD969393C6C01867FCD Submitted on March 24, 2003; resubmitted on July 11, 2003. accepted on July 28, 2003 5To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, KS 66160‐7400, USA. e‐mail: jhunt@kumc.edu local:gag087 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1360-9947 1460-2407 1460-2407 |
DOI: | 10.1093/molehr/gag087 |