Objective: To study the immunologic etiopathology of pregnancy induced hypertention (PIH) in some extent by analyzing the antibody secretion of B lymphocytes of PIH patients.
Methods: The subjects were divided into two groups: PIH group (n = 15) and normotensive control group (n = 15). Peripheral lymphocytes of the subjucts were separated by Ficoll-Hypaque density centrifugation. The lymphocytes were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium with or without pokeweed mitogen (PWM) for ten days. Then the supernatant was collected and the IgG and IgM were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results of the two groups were analyzed by using student test.
Results: Both IgG and IgM secretion of B lymphocytes between PIH group and normtensive control group showed no difference in the absence of PWM (per 1 x 10(6) lymphocytes, for IgG, 120 +/- 68 ng vs 154 +/- 89 ng, P > 0.05; for IgM, 337 +/- 119 ng vs 371 +/- 135 ng, P > 0.05. Whereas the level of the two antibodies in PIH group was significantly decreased than that of the normotensive group in presence of PWM (for IgG, 947 +/- 518 ng vs 1,367 +/- 598 ng, P < 0.05; for IgM, 2,023 +/- 879 ng vs 2,840 +/- 1,057 ng, P < 0.05).
Conclusion: B lymphocyte of PIH patient has a decreased capacity of antibodies secreting in response to stimulation of PWM, which suggests that B lymphocyte of PIH patient may have functional deficiency.