Cardiolipin antibody levels are not influenced by leukocyte immunotherapy in patients experiencing recurrent spontaneous abortion

To confirm that leukocyte immunotherapy stimulates the production of cardiolipin antibodies and to relate changes to pregnancy outcome. Fifty patients with idiopathic recurrent abortion were studied. Thirty-six patients received injections of their partners’ leukocytes; 14, injected with their own cells, served as controls. Cardiolipin antibodies were measured a month before and after leukocyte immunization. Patients who became pregnant were immunized a second time in early pregnancy, and cardiolipin antibodies were again measured a month later. Thirty-six patients immunized with their partners’ leukocytes showed no appreciable change in cardiolipin antibody levels a month after vaccination. Twenty-nine of them subsequently became pregnant and were immunized again in early pregnancy: again, no change in cardiolipin antibody level was observed. There was no difference between the minority who aborted again and the majority who subsequently had successful pregnancies nor between those who responded to immunotherapy by producing cytotoxic antilymphocyte antibodies and those who did not. Leukocyte immunotherapy does not stimulate cardiolipin antibody production in women with normal pretreatment levels of the autoantibody.