Innate immune proteins, SP-A, SP-D and MBL-A, are expressed by murine testicular germ cells and are positively regulated by testosterone

Abstract

Oocyte donation (OD) enables women with various causes of reproductive failure to conceive, but is accompanied with a high risk for certain pregnancy disorders. Possibly, the allogeneic nature of the fetus in OD pregnancies plays a role in the development of these disorders. In this study, we investigated whether there is a selection for some degree of HLA matching in successful and uncomplicated OD pregnancies. Mothers and children from OD pregnancies that made use of unrelated donors (n=75) were typed for HLA-A,-B,-C,-DR,-DQ and the observed number of HLA matches of the child was compared with the expected number of HLA matches. Moreover, we studied the possibility of a preferential selection for maternal KIR and fetal C combinations. We observed a significantly higher level of HLA matching betweenmother and child than expected by chance. Especially the incidenceof childrenwith5ormoreHLAmatches,which is the situation in autologous pregnancy, was higher than expected. A higher level of matching was shown especially for HLA class I, while no significant differences were observed for the individual HLA loci. With respect to maternal KIR and fetal HLA-C no selection for a favorable combination was found. Larger observational studies including uncomplicated, preeclamptic and aborted pregnancies are essential to determine to what extent HLA matching affects the outcome of OD pregnancies.