Abstract

BACKGROUND A plethora of evidence has shown that circulating auto-antibodies (a-Abs) are critically linked to pregnancy failure. In this study the possible association of serum immune reactivity (IR) against β2-Glycoprotein-I (β2GPI) and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic (ANCA) a-Abs in recurrent miscarriage (RM) was examined. METHODS This is a case-control study which was carried out in a research and clinical center for infertility, during January to December 2013 on 128 women with RM, matched with 65 women with no history of pregnancy wastage. The participant's sera were collected and serum IR was analyzed against β2GPI and ANCA a-Abs by ELI-P-Complex screening technology, the assay involved a standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Serum IR of each sample was calculated in conditional units (CU). RESULTS Elevated serum IR against β2GPI and decreased serum IR against ANCA a-Abs were detected in a total of 51.5% (N.=66; m=-42 CU) and 24.2% (N.=31; m=-42 CU) patients, respectively. In rare control subjects, serum IR against β2GPI (3%) and ANCA (1.5%) was observed. The elevated serum IR of β2GPI was not correlated with the decreased serum IR against ANCA (r=-0.23, P<0.05). Moreover, β2GPI IR was associated with first trimester miscarriages (P=0.03) and the number of previous miscarriages (P=0.04). CONCLUSIONS The present study indicates that the risk of RM may be high in women with the prominent serum IR deviations against β2GPI and ANCA a-Abs. According to the findings and ELI-P-Complex technology principles, it is suggested that the vigorous monitoring of these two a-Abs pre- and during pregnancy may be useful to avoid negative outcomes such as miscarriage.