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Humoral immune responses in murine pregnancy. IV. Strain dependency and alloantibody specificity
The relationship between the ability of female inbred mice to produce an anti-paternal humoral immune response to allogeneic multiparity and the genotype of the female and male strains has been investigated. Only three, all H-2b haplotype strains, were 'responder' strains and produced anti-paternal alloantibody which did not exhibit C'-dependent cytotoxicity. 'Non-responder' strains produced no alloantibody in spite of multiple pregnancies with H-2 and non-H-2 incompatible male strains. However, even responder strains did not produce alloantibody with all incompatible male strains. The absence of a response in a responder strain mated with a male strain differing at only the H-2 locus implicated a role for non-H-2 influences. A study of the specificity of pregnancy-induced alloantibody suggested that this represented only a fraction of the total alloantibody population induced by conventional immunization in the same strain combination. It is suggested that in pregnancy only the anti-non-H-2 humoral responses remain similar to those induced by immunization, whereas anti-H-2 humoral responses are either absent or are restricted to a fraction of the total foreign H-2 specificities presented. These observations are discussed in relation to the nature of the immunogenic stimulus in pregnancy and the expression of histocompatibility antigens on the feto-placental unit.
The relationship between the ability of female inbred mice to produce an anti-paternal humoral immune response to allogeneic multiparity and the genotype of the female and male strains has been investigated. Only three, all H-2b haplotype strains, were 'responder' strains and produced anti-paternal alloantibody which did not exhibit C'-dependent cytotoxicity. 'Non-responder' strains produced no alloantibody in spite of multiple pregnancies with H-2 and non-H-2 incompatible male strains. However, even responder strains did not produce alloantibody with all incompatible male strains. The absence of a response in a responder strain mated with a male strain differing at only the H-2 locus implicated a role for non-H-2 influences. A study of the specificity of pregnancy-induced alloantibody suggested that this represented only a fraction of the total alloantibody population induced by conventional immunization in the same strain combination. It is suggested that in pregnancy only the anti-non-H-2 humoral responses remain similar to those induced by immunization, whereas anti-H-2 humoral responses are either absent or are restricted to a fraction of the total foreign H-2 specificities presented. These observations are discussed in relation to the nature of the immunogenic stimulus in pregnancy and the expression of histocompatibility antigens on the feto-placental unit.