Vitaya Sridama

Decreased levels of helper T cells: a possible cause of immunodeficiency in pregnancy.

DECREASED maternal immune responsiveness during pregnancy may partly explain the survival of the fetus as an allograft. It may also account for changes in disease activity and antibody production i...

Association of differentiated thyroid carcinoma with HLA‐DR7

Seventy‐four American white thyroid cancer patients were typed for HLA‐A, B, and DR antigens. A significant increase in HLA‐DR7 was found in the nonradiation‐associated thyroid cancer patients (42.5%, 20/47 cases), compared to 22.8% of 979 normal controls. The association is stronger in the follicular and mixed papillary—follicular subgroup (52.0%, 13/25 cases, P corrected <0.01). The occurrence of various malignancies in family members was found in 57.9% of HLA‐DR7 positive patients, versus 20% of HLA‐DR7 negative patients, in a retrospective record review. Although the frequency of HLA‐DR7 was not increased in the radiation‐associated thyroid cancer patients (22.2%, 6/27 cases), the interval from the irradiation date to the onset date of thyroid cancer was shorter in HLA‐DR7 positive cases (17.3 ± 6.2 years) than in HLA‐DR7 negative patients (29.4 ± 11.5 years). This data suggest that HLA‐DR7 is associated with and may influence development of thyroid cancer.

T-cell subsets in patients with preeclampsia.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with preeclampsia were enumerated by means of monoclonal anti-T-cell antibodies. The percentage of total T cells was significantly decreased in this group of patients, as compared with normal term pregnant women. The low proportion of T cells was due to a proportional reduction in both helper and suppressor T cells; therefore, the ratio of helper to suppressor T cells was not different from that in normal pregnant women. There was no correlation between the degree of reduction in percentage of T cells and severity of the disease. The absolute numbers of T cells were slightly, but not significantly, decreased. Our findings support previous evidence of reduced, not increased, immune reactivity in preeclampsia.

HLA Immunogenetic Heterogeneity Within Patients With Graves' Disease-Reply

—The authors entirely agree that future studies using analysis of HLA-D associations at the genomic level will be important and may provide insights not available with the methodology available at the time this study was performed.