HLA‐E polymorphism in patients with recurrent spontaneous abortion

The aim of this study was to compare the frequencies of five HLA-E alleles in 82 women with recurrent spontaneous abortions with that of 150 random Danish controls. PCR sequence-specific oligonucleotide typing was carried out to detect polymorphism in exons 2 and 3 of the HLA-E gene. In informative samples sequencing of these two exons was also undertaken to confirm the presence of the HLA-E*01031 allele. HLA-E*0101, HLA-E*01032 and HLA-E*01031 were detected with frequencies of 56.7%, 33.6% and 9.6% in controls and 58,5%, 32.9% and 8.5% in patients with recurrent abortion, respectively. No HLA-E*0102 and E*0104 alleles could be detected. Since the HLA-E allele distribution was similar in women with recurrent spontaneous abortion and controls, it is suggested that maternal HLA-E polymorphism per se does not play any role in the pathogenesis of this disorder of pregnancy.