Autoantibodies to soluble cellular antigens in unexplained recurrent abortion and infertility

In 36 women with unexplained primary recurrent abortion, 13 with secondary unexpained recurrent abortion, 25 with primary unexplained infertility, 7 with secondary unexplained infertility and two groups of control women, autoantibodies to soluble cellular antigens were measured by Western blotting to a disaggregated HeLa cell antigen preparation, by counter immunoelectrophoresis and by indirect immunofluorescence. Using Western blotting the women with primary infertility and those with secondary recurrent abortion had a significantly higher prevalence of autoantibodies (P less than 0.01 in each case). This was not shown using the other methods. It is possible that these antibodies could be causally related to the pathology of the conditions studied.