Effects of Crude and Purified Human Chorionic Gonadotropin on Lymphocyte Response

Abstract

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) preparations with different biological activities were tested for their inhibitory effects on mitogenic of allogenic induced lymphocyte response. Various crude hormone batches inhibited the lymphocyte reaction in a dose-dependent manner. However, we found a varying suppression of lymphocyte response not correlated to the biological activity (2,660–4,300 IU/mg) of crude hormone. Fractions with very low gonadotropic activity ( < < 500 IU/mg) showed a 100-fold inhibition of lymphocyte reaction. Conversely, the enrichment of highly purified hCG with strong biological activity ( > 10,000 IU/mg) had no inhibitory effect on mitogenic or allogenic induced lymphocyte transformation. I soelectro focussing and immunoelectrophoretic investigations indicated that the inhibition is probably caused by nondialyzable sialoglyco-proteins. It is therefore very doubtful whether hCG plays an important part in maternal tolerance of the fetal allograft.

Immune cells contribute to systemic cross‐talk between the embryo and mother during early pregnancy in cooperation with the endocrine system

“…In 1973, crude HCG purified from urine was reported to suppress immune reactions 91 . Subsequent studies demonstrated that contaminating factors other than HCG are responsible for these effects and highly purified HCG had no effect on lymphocyte function 92–94 . Thereafter, the secretion of several cytokines was shown to be modified by HCG stimulation in PBMC in vitro 95–97 .…”