Lymphocyte reactivity in pregnant women and newborn infants.

Comparison of uridine uptake at 24 hours with thymidine uptake at 72 hours in phytohaemagglutinin-stimulated cultures of pregnant and other subjects.

“…The correlation in this small group was found to be significant (R8 = 0-74, p < 0 05). Our finding of a significant depression of T72 in PHA-stimulated cultures from pregnant subjects as compared with normal controls confirms the findings of Purtilo et al (1972), Finn et al (1972, and Yu et al (1975). It should be mentioned that other workers have reported normal (Thiede et al, 1968;Watkins, 1972) or even enhanced lymphocyte reactivity to PHA in pregnancy (Carr and Stites, 1972).…”

Development of Mitogen Responding T Cells and Natural Killer Cells in the Human Fetus

“…In the 1001-1250 g weight group three low responders to PHA and two low responders to Con A were observed. Similar observations have been reported by Yu et al (1975). Most of the 14 low responders showed virtually no response, either to PHA or Con A or both (Table II).…”

Cell‐Mediated Immunity in Human Pregnancy

“…While some investigators have claimed that the maternal immunological response to mitogens or allogeneic lymphocytes is depressed during pregnancy (6,10,12,18,20,25,27), other workers have found no difference in the immunological responses between pregnant and nonpregnant women (4,11,15,24,26). Variations in materials and methodology in different laboratories may be responsible for the disparity.…”

“…In vitro assays using the blastogenic response of lymphocytes to mitogens or allogeneic lymphocytes as the parameter for evaluating CMI have been attempted, to prove this hypothesis. However, studies on the blastogenic response of maternal lymphocytes in pregnancy have yielded conflicting results, which include the report of depressed response of maternal lymphocytes to PHA (6,18,20,25,27), to PPD (23), or to allogeneic lymphocytes (9,25) and the findings that the lymphocytes from pregnant women are as fully reactive in vitro to PHA (7,15,24,26) and in a mixed lymphocyte reaction as those from nonpregnant women. The difference in the results may reflect variations in the materials and methodology used in different laboratories.…”