Treichel R S
Department of Genetics, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, TX 78284.
Genetica. 1987 Aug 31;73(1-2):69-79. doi: 10.1007/BF00057438.
The discovery of the Rh blood group factor in humans was made using the red blood cells of rhesus monkeys. Because of its importance to human medicine and immunogenetics, this finding contributed greatly to the appreciation of the importance of nonhuman primates in research. It is now widely recognized that blood group incompatibility between mother and fetus can lead to differential fertility, fetal death, and hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN). The blood group systems of several nonhuman primate species have been studied in detail and found to be analogous, although not identical, to those of humans. It is therefore surprising that HDN has been reported in only four nonhuman primate species--marmosets, sacred baboons, chimpanzees, and orangutans. Maternal-fetal blood group incompatibility and its consequences have been extensively studied in rhesus monkeys, and these macaques may well be representative of many nonhuman primates. Rhesus monkeys exhibit all five of the conditions that lead to HDN in humans: (1) blood group incompatible matings; (2) transplacental hemorrhage; (3) maternal immunization to blood group alloantigens on fetal erythrocytes; (4) transplacental transfer of maternal antibodies; and (5) coating of the newborn's erythrocytes. Yet, newborns show no clinical or hematological evidence of HDN. We have shown that the rhesus alloantibodies engendered by transplacental immunization do not mediate immune elimination of the newborn's erythrocytes. Evaluation of the maternal antibodies demonstrated that they have low titers and low avidities and perhaps belong to IgG subclasses that do not bind effectively to receptors on phagocytic cells of the rhesus reticuloendothelial system. The newborn's genotype may also affect the expression of allogeneic blood group antigens and thereby help protect the newborn's cells from destruction. These factors together undoubtedly play a major role in the survival of the antibody-coated newborn's RBC and are thus able to account for the absence of HDN in this species.
人类Rh血型因子的发现是利用恒河猴的红细胞完成的。由于其对人类医学和免疫遗传学的重要性，这一发现极大地促进了人们对非人类灵长类动物在研究中的重要性的认识。现在人们普遍认识到，母婴血型不相容可导致生育差异、胎儿死亡和新生儿溶血病（HDN）。几个非人类灵长类物种的血型系统已被详细研究，发现它们与人类的血型系统相似但并不完全相同。因此，令人惊讶的是，仅在四种非人类灵长类物种——狨猴、阿拉伯狒狒、黑猩猩和猩猩中报道过HDN。母婴血型不相容及其后果在恒河猴中已得到广泛研究，这些猕猴很可能代表了许多非人类灵长类动物。恒河猴表现出导致人类HDN的所有五种情况：（1）血型不相容交配；（2）经胎盘出血；（3）母体对胎儿红细胞上血型同种异体抗原的免疫；（4）母体抗体的经胎盘转移；（5）新生儿红细胞的包被。然而，新生儿没有显示出HDN的临床或血液学证据。我们已经表明，经胎盘免疫产生的恒河猴同种异体抗体不会介导新生儿红细胞的免疫清除。对母体抗体的评估表明，它们的滴度低、亲和力低，可能属于不能有效结合恒河猴网状内皮系统吞噬细胞上受体的IgG亚类。新生儿的基因型也可能影响同种异体血型抗原的表达，从而有助于保护新生儿的细胞不被破坏
