Human maternal cell mediated immune reaction to placental antigens

Abstract

The macrophage migration inhibition test was employed to show reactivity of maternal peripheral blood leucocytes to placental antigens. Four to 5 days after delivery, all of forty-one postpartum women tested had leucocytes in their blood that reacted with pooled antigens from five placentas. When antigens from a single placenta were used leucocytes from only the woman who donated that placenta and one of nine unrelated postpartum women were reactive. Leucocytes from seventeen-control subjects, including nulligravidous women, were non-reactive with either the single or the pooled placental antigens. The results indicated that the mothers may be specifically sensitized, as far as the cell mediated immune response is concerned, by the placenta during pregnancy.