W175 - Role of Killer Immunoglobulin Like Receptors (KIR) and Their Ligands HLA-C in Recurrent Miscarriage. a Case Control Study from Saudi Arabia

Mohamed Alasmari – Najran University; Majed Alshahrani – Najran University; Ameer Dafallah; Gehad Elghazali – Consultant and Service Lead Immunologist, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC)

Abstract Text: Unknown etiology of Recurrent Miscarriages (RM) causes discrepancies in the diagnosis and treatment at a global level. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the possible and unexpected causes and related risks like Killer Immunoglobulin like Receptors (KIRs) of the NK cells, its ligand HLA class-1. This is a case control study aimed to investigate the role of highly polymorphic NK cell KIRs, and their ligands, HLA C. There were 68 women with proven RM patients and 91 controls who had successful pregnancies and shared the same ethnic background. Five (5) ml of blood was collected in EDTA, the KIR and HLA-class 1 genes were genotyped in patients and healthy controls. Data were analyzed and reported that, the frequency distribution of the inhibitory KIR2DL1/L2/L3 and 2DL5 and activating KIR2DS2/S3/S4 were lower in patients than in controls, but did not achieve statistical significance About 37 and 25 distinct KIR haplotypes in patients and controls respectively were documented. No significant distribution differences reported of haplotypes between cases and controls. In this study we observed that the activating centromeric BB haplotypes were significantly more common in RM patients, suggesting that it may be a risk factor for RM, particularly when the HLA C2C2 is a ligand, whereas centromeric AB haplotype, HLAC1C2, is more prevalent in the control group and is linked to successful pregnancies.