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Stress‐Triggered Abortion in Mice Prevented by Alloimmunization
Author(s) -
CLARK DAVID A.,
BANWATT DALJEET,
CHAOUAT GERARD
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
american journal of reproductive immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.071
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1600-0897
pISSN - 1046-7408
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0897.1993.tb00579.x
Subject(s) - abortion , immunogen , medicine , pregnancy , splenocyte , major histocompatibility complex , andrology , immunology , offspring , antigen , gynecology , biology , antibody , monoclonal antibody , genetics
PROBLEM: To determine if immunotherapy can prevent abortion triggered by mechanisms that in humans may be treatable by psychotherapy. METHOD: The effects of alloimmunization against paternal strain antigens were tested in pregnant mice subjected to stress. RESULTS: Restraint stress boosted the resorption rate assessed on day 13.5 of pregnancy in DBA/2‐mated C3H/HeJ mice with an optimal effect on day 4.5 of pregnancy, and premating alloimmunization greatly reduced the effect. By contrast, CBA/J and A/J mice proved resistant to abortion boosting by restraint stress. A/J mice mated to DBA/2 or C3H/HeJ males showed reduced fertility, perhaps due to failure of pregnancy immediately after the stress, but this was not corrected by alloimmunization with either DBA/2 [class I + class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) immunogen] or C3H/HeJ (class I MHC immunogen) splenocytes. There was a reduction in the endogenous resorption rate, however, and implantation number was slightly increased by preimmunization using DBA/2 cells. The abortion rate could be boosted, however, by ultrasonic noise stress of high abortion rate CBA/J, and preimmunization using BALB/c (H‐2 d ) splenocytes protected. A similar boosting of loss in low abortion rate BALB/k mice was ameliorated (albeit not completely) by preimmunization with allogeneic paternal but not syngeneic splenocytes. CONCLUSIONS: Immunotherapy may protect against a variety of potential triggers of spontaneous abortion, including those that may be amenable to psychological remedies, and possible mechanisms are discussed.