Depression of the lymphocyte transformation response to microbial antigens and to phytohemagglutinin during pregnancy.

Abstract

A B S T R A C T Lymphocyte transformation (LT) responses to Chlamydia trachomatis, to four other microbial antigens, and to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) were studied in 201 women during pregnancy and/or 3-18 wk postpartum. The LT responses to all stimulants tested were significantly depressed during pregnancy when compared with postpartum LT responses. This difference occurred whether LT assays were performed in autologous or pooled heterologous plasma collected from nonpregnant donors. Among women studied in the third trimester and again postpartum, the autologous LT stimulation index (LTSI) rose from 1.7 to 3.4 (P < 0.001) with C. trachomatis elementary body antigen, from 3.7 to 7.9 (P < 0.001) with Candida albicans cell wall extract, from 4.5 to 7.8 (P = 0.008) with streptokinase-streptodornase, from 1.7 to 3.0 (P = 0.007) with fluid tetanus toxoid, from 1.7 to 2.8 (P = 0.046) with mumps virus skin test antigen, from 35.5 to 87.0 (P < 0.001) with PHA (2 ,ug/ml), and from 107.2 to 181.9 (P = 0.007) with PHA (10 ,g/ml). LT responses to C. trachomatis were compared in 52 pregnant women and 58 nonpregnant women; all the women had C. trachomatis isolated at the time of LT assay. Using either plasma supplement, the mean LTSI with C. trachomatis antigen was significantly higher in nonpregnant women than in pregnant women, regardless of trimester (P < 0.001). Among 12 women who were

Cell-Mediated Immune Responses to Chlamydia trachomatis in Mothers and Infants

“…This suggests that CMI against chlamydiae is depressed during pregnancy. This finding is consistent with those of other investigators who have reported depression of CMI against chlamydiae and other microorganisms during pregnancy (23)(24)(25). Additional studies are needed to determine whether or not depression of CMI against chlamydiae during pregnancy results in increased susceptibility of pregnant women to recurrent or chronic genital infection with C. trachomatis.…”

Responses to mitogenic stimulation of lymphocytes taken during and after pregnancy

“…Detailed criticisms can be made of most published articles for not controlling for one or more of the following important parameters: sufficient numbers of cases should be investigated; women should be followed sequentially during pregnancy to avoid person-to-person variation; mononuclear leucocytes should be separated from other blood cells and quantitated before assay; several concentrations of PHA should be used to provide a dose response curve; responses obtained with autologous plasma should always be referred to a standard plasma source; pooled heterologous plasma should not be used because it may contain antibodies reactive with allogeneic determinants on lymphocytes. Only one study published so far [16] has controlled for most of the pitfalls described above. It is interesting to note that these authors describe similar findings to those presented here, although many of their antenatal patients had proven genital infection with Chlamydia trachomatis at the time of testing.…”

Stimulation of peripheral lymphocytes from cancer patients and healthy subjects by Pseudomonas aeruginosa lectin

“…The aim of the present study was to test the possibility of using the bacterial lectin PA-I of P. aeruginosa for the diagnosis of impaired immune Values represent the mean+ SEM of results obtained with 5 samples taken from blood of each person. Cancer patients included those suffering from solid cancer of the cecum [1], cardia [3] lung [4], colon [6,8] and stomach [7], as well as from clear cell carcinoma [2] and hypernephroma [5]. a The calculation of the stimulation index (SI) is described in MATERIALS AND METHODS.…”

“…This effect is abolished by the saccharides for which the lectins are specific [1][2][3]. The lectin-induced lymphoblastogenesis may serve as an aid in the detection of immunodeficiency, ~uch as that found in some physiological conditions [4][5][6] and diseases [7,8] as well as after certain medical treatments [9][10][11]. The lectin of Phaseolus vulgaris (PHA) is the most widely used mitogen for this purpose [12].…”