Clinical evaluation of immunotherapy in early pregnancy with x-irradiated paternal mononuclear cells for primary recurrent aborters

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the beneficial effect of immunotherapy for the treatment of recurrent abortion.

Study design: We immunized 106 primary recurrent aborters, twice at around 5 and 7 weeks of gestation, with intradermal injection of approximately 100 to 200 million x-irradiated (50 Gy) paternal mononuclear cells. We injected another 38 primary recurrent aborters in the same manner with only 1 million such paternal cells, to examine the relationship between the paternal cell dose used for immunization and pregnancy outcome.

Results: The pregnancy success rate (83.0%) in patients immunized with a large number of cells was significantly higher than that (55.3%) in those immunized with a small number of cells (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the frequency of twins in the former group was high (5.7%, five of 88).

Conclusion: This positive relationship between the paternal cell dose used for immunization in early pregnancy and the pregnancy outcome reflects the efficacy of this mode of immunotherapy for recurrent aborters.