HLA-G isoforms, HLA-C allotype and their expressions differ between early abortus and placenta in relation to...

Spontaneous abortion (SAB) affects approximately 10% of clinically recognized pregnancies. Fetal trophobalst invasion and remodeling of maternal spiral arteries is reported to be dependent on crosstalk between HLA-C/HLA-G expressed on extra villous trophoblast (EVTs)and Killer cell Immunoglobin like receptors (KIRs) of decidual NK (dNK). Immune dysfunction in decidua contributes to early miscarriage.

The study used mother neonate paired cord blood and term placenta samples (n = 46), elective abortus (n = 17,gestational age = 10-12 weeks of pregnancy) and SAB abortus (n = 24, gestational age = 12-15 weeks of pregnancy) for HLA-G, KIR2D and HLA-C. In addition, term placenta was collected from women with history of spontaneous pregnancy loss (n = 24) and women with history of live birth (n = 32). SSP-PCR was used for genotyping, RT-PCR for gene expression, copy number variation (CNVs) and HLA-C allotyping and ELISA for protein expression studies.

Membrane bound HLA-G4 isoform proportion was higher 39.28%, p = 0.02) in term placenta. SAB abortus had higher proportion of HLA-G3 (50%),while elective abortus exhibited higher proportion of soluble isoforms (HLA-G5, = 5.9, HLA-G6 = 5.9%, HLA-G7 = 11.8%). Higher inhibitory KIR2DL1 content and copy numbers with lower HLA-C2 in SAB contrasted with higher copy numbers of KIR2DS1(p = 0.001), KIR2DS1⁺/2DL1⁺- HLA-C2 combined genotype in healthy placenta. Elevated KIR2D protein levels (p = 0.001), and concurrently, HLA-C levels were upregulated in healthy placenta.

Our data supports lower cognate receptor ligand KIR2DS1+/2DL1+ HLA-C2 together with predominance of HLA-G3 isoform in SAB as confounding factors in spontaneous pregnancy loss. HLA-G isoforms and expression differed between first trimester abortus and term placenta suggesting temporal modulation and marks novelty of the study.