Abortion Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Abortion, including details on abortion pill, procedure, facts, information.

Increased activating killer immunoglobulin-like receptor genes and decreased specific HLA-C alleles in couples with recurrent spontaneous abortion.

Wang S, Zhao YR, Jiao YL, Wang LC, Li JF, Cui B, Xu CY, Shi YH, Chen ZJ

Research Center for Reproductive Medicine, Shandong Provincial Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan 250021, China.

Accumulating evidence indicates natural killer (NK) cells play crucial roles in successful pregnancy. To investigate whether the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) gene polymorphism and the corresponding specific HLA ligands in parent couples possessing a susceptibility to unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA), we searched 73 pairs of childless couples with three or more abortions characterized as unexplained RSA and 68 pairs of healthy control couples. Peripheral blood was drawn to obtain genomic DNA which was used for a polymerase chain reaction using sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) in order to determine whether 15 selected KIR genes and two groups of HLA-C alleles were present. Our result showed that gene frequency of KIR2DS1 was higher in patients with RSA compared to that of control subjects (P =0.029). Increased numbers of activating KIR genes was observed in patients (P =0.041). Women who possessed more than two activating KIR genes were found more frequently in patients than those in control subjects (P =0.018). From a cohort of husband and wife couples, the women with a KIR2DS1 gene, and with a decreased group 2 HLA-C allele for the homologous inhibitory receptor KIR2DL1, had a tendency to fall into the RSA group (P =0.004). The results suggest that a genetic variation at the KIR locus influences the susceptibility to unexplained RSA in the Chinese Han population. Moreover, decreased ligands for inhibitory KIRs could potentially lower the threshold for NK cell activation, mediated through activating receptors, thereby contributing to pathogenesis of RSA.

Published 19 July 2007 in Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 360(3): 696-701.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Abortion Research Today. All Rights Reserved.