Trophoblast antigenicity demonstrated by altered challenge graft survival

Immunological Studies of the Human Placenta CHARACTERIZATION OF IMMUNOGLOBULINS ON TROPHOBLASTIC BASEMENT MEMBRANES

“…If this is true, it could introduce two novel mechanisms leading to fetal wastage: (a) some women may mount an aberrant response to "trophoblast antigen" by producing nonblocking antibodies, analogous to the antibodies that some patients with clinical allergy produce to antigens such as ragweed (43); and (b) some trophoblasts may have a metabolic abnormality that causes them to produce "trophoblast antigen" whose physical chemistry is not appropriate to invoke blocking antibodies in the mother. The idea of trophoblast-specific antigens is not new to immunobiology (3,44,45), but the concept of aberrant responses to these antigens or of the production of aberrant antigens has not been hitherto considered, and this may merit further consideration.…”

The expression of surface antigens on three trophoblastic tissues in the mouse

“…Ectoplacental cone grafts are not rejected unless the host is presensitized (Simmons & Russell, 1967) and do not presensitize hosts to allogeneic skin grafts (Searle, Jenkinson & Johnson, 1975). Hulka & Mohr (1968), however, demon¬ strated that ectoplacental cone could immunize the host. Whole placenta can induce hypersensitivity to paternal strain alloantigens and placental tissue grafts have been shown to be susceptible to rejection (Uhr & Anderson, 1962;Schlesinger, 1964).…”

Immune relations between mother and foetus in the viviparous poeciliid fish Xiphophorus hellerii Haeckel

“…If the embryo and its mother carried histocompatibility antigens in common, the recipient would have been sensitized to these antigens by the embryo transplant, and would show accelerated rejection of the scale grafts. This is similar to the ' graft-and-challenge ' technique used by Hulka & Mohr (1968) to demonstrate the antigenicity of trophoblast. Secondly, adult fish received a series of scale grafts from a pregnant female to sensitize them against maternal histocompatibility antigens.…”