Kensaku Asano

Chromosome analysis of aborted conceptuses of recurrent aborters positive for anticardiolipin antibody

OBJECTIVE To elucidate the relationship between anticardiolipin antibody and recurrent abortion. DESIGN Prospective clinical study. SETTING Institutional practice in which patients with recurrent abortion were registered at the outpatient clinic for infertility of Niigata University Hospital. PATIENT(S) Five hundred sixty-one patients with recurrent abortions and 148 patients who were not recurrent aborters and who had experienced sporadic abortion. INTERVENTION(S) Aborted conceptuses for chromosome analyses were collected from the patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) The positive rate of anticardiolipin antibody was assessed in patients with recurrent abortion. Chromosome analyses of aborted conceptuses were performed in 10 patients with positive anticardiolipin antibody who had experienced another pregnancy that resulted in repeated abortion. Similar analyses of aborted conceptuses from 148 sporadic early abortions (controls) were performed. RESULT(S) The incidence of chromosome abnormalities in anticardiolipin antibody-positive recurrent aborters was 20.0% (2 of 10 cases), which was significantly lower than that of patients with sporadic abortion (60.1%, 89 of 148 cases). CONCLUSION(S) The low incidence of chromosome abnormalities in aborted conceptuses of patients with positive anticardiolipin antibody suggests that this antibody is strongly implicated in the genesis of recurrent abortions.

Is an additional vaccination necessary for a successful second pregnancy in unexplained recurrent aborters who were successfully immunized with their husband's lymphocytes before the first pregnancy?

PROBLEM: Is an additional immunotherapy necessary or not for patients who have obtained successful results after initial immunotherapy?

Significant Compatibility Does Not Exist at the HLA-DQB Gene Locus in Couples With Unexplained Recurrent Abortions

ABSTRACT: The polymerase chain reaction‐restricted fragment length polymorphism (PCR‐RFLP) method was used for both examining compatibility at the HLA‐DQB1 gene locus and determining HLA‐DQ antigen polymorphism in spouses of unexplained recurrent abortions. Genomic DNA samples were prepared from peripheral mononuclear cells from patient and control couples. Two hundred and thirty base pair fragments of the second exon of the HLA‐DQB genes were selectively amplified. Amplified DNAs were digested with the restriction endonucleases, Fok I, Hae III, Hha I, Rsa I and Sau3A I, and subjected to electrophoresis in a polyacrylamide gel. The RFLPs showed that habitual aborters and their husbands had neither significantly frequent alleles nor shared common alleles at the HLA‐DQB locus when compared to the control group.