[The skewed usage of T cell receptor beta variable chain at the maternal-fetal interface of women with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate T cell receptor (TCR) variable beta (BV) chain usage at the maternal-fetal interface and explore the relationship between the skewed TCR BV usage and unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA).

METHODS

Eighteen cases with unexplained RSA, together with matched 41 women with normal pregnancies in first trimester from Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University were studied. A high-resolution spectrum typing analysis of complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) was used to detect and compare the degree and frequency of TCR BV family expression in deciduas between RSA patients and normal controls.

RESULTS

(1) The expression degree of BV19 (0.029 +/- 0.031 vs. 0.013 +/- 0.010, P = 0.038) in RSA group showed a higher usage, while BV5.2 (0.040 +/- 0.035 vs. 0.067 +/- 0.052, P = 0.046) showed a significantly lower usage when compared with normal controls. No significant difference in the expression of the other TCR BV families between RSA and controls were observed (P > 0.05). (2) TCR BV2, 3, 6, and 7 were the four most common BV families in deciduas of patients with RSA and normal controls, whose frequencies were all more than 50%. In RSA group, higher frequencies of BV15 (33.3% vs. 7.3%, P = 0.018), BV19 (38.9% vs. 14.6%, P = 0.049) and BV20 (33.3% vs. 7.3%, P = 0.018) were observed; meanuhile lower frequencies of BV4 (33.3% vs. 65.9%, P = 0.026) and BV7 (66.7% vs.92.7%, P = 0.018) distributions were observed. The other TCR BV families did not display significantly different freqencies of distribution (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

It is suggested that a significant skewed TCR BV family occurs at the maternal-fetal interface in patients who undergo abortion. The specific skewed usages of TCR BV might be associated with the susceptibility to unexplained pregnancy loss.