Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Immunological studies of the placenta in systemic lupus erythematosus.
  1. D M Grennan,
  2. J N McCormick,
  3. D Wojtacha,
  4. M Carty,
  5. W Behan

    Abstract

    An immunological study was made of the placentae from 5 mothers with lupus erythematosus. 3 of the 5 mothers had anti-DNA antibodies in their sera at the time of delivery and in one of these anti-DNA antibodies were detected in the cord blood. This patient had active renal disease and serological evidence suggestive of circulating immune complexes in her blood at the time of delivery. Immunofluorescence studies showed granular deposition of immunoglobulin and C3 on the trophoblast basement membrane similar to that previously described on the glomerular basement membrane in systemic lupus erythematosus. Anti-DNA antibodies were eluted from the placenta in this case. We suggest that immune complex deposition on the trophoblast basement membrane in patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus may play a part in the increased fetal mortality in this disease.

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.