Inhibition of binding of anti-CD3 antibodies to paternal lymphocytes correlates with failure of immunotherapy for treatment of recurrent spontaneous abortions.

A two color flow cytometry crossmatch (FCXM) was used to evaluate the induction of anti-lymphocyte antibodies in 34 women undergoing immunotherapy for recurrent spontaneous abortions. All women had anti-lymphocyte antibodies that reacted with T-cells when analyzed by FCXM. However, inhibition of the binding of anti-CD3 to paternal CD3 lymphocytes in the presence of maternal antipaternal lymphocyte antiserum was found for some couples following lymphocyte immunotherapy for spontaneous recurrent abortions. Ten couples who had another spontaneous abortion following immunotherapy showed inhibition. In contrast, eight couples who did not show inhibition of the binding of anti-CD3 T lymphocytes to paternal lymphocytes by maternal anti-lymphocyte antiserum had live births. Women of the remaining 16 couples were either pregnant and awaiting birth or not pregnant. Thus, by FCXM it may be possible to predict those couples who will have successful pregnancies following this treatment.