Analysis of HLA-DR types of unexplained recurrent spontaneous aborters in the Japanese population by oligonucleotide-DNA typing

To examine whether unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA), defined as 2 or more consecutive spontaneous abortions, is correlated with a particular DR type in the Japanese population, we determined the HLA-DR types of 82 primary aborters and 21 secondary aborters by DNA typing utilizing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and hybridization with sequence-specific oligonucleotides (SSOs). The DR gene frequencies of the patient group were compared with those of a normal group at three different levels of DR-definition (27, 13 and 11 DR types). At none of the three levels of comparison was any particular DR type with a frequency differing significantly between the patient and normal groups detected in Japanese URSA patients. Furthermore, we examined whether URSA was correlated with the degree of compatibility of HLA-DR antigen within patients and their husbands. Comparison of the DR compatibility between patients and normal couples was made in two different ways, i.e., comparison of the numbers of couples with mismatches and comparison of the average number of mismatches. For either of these two comparisons, we observed no difference in DR compatibility between patients and normal couples. Our results suggest that URSA is not correlated with any particular DR type and that the condition cannot be explained simply by DR compatibility between husband and wife.