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Previous Volume 361:152-160 July 9, 2009 Number 2 Next

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ABSTRACT

Background A previous report described the presence of autoantibodies against folate receptors in 75% of serum samples from women with a history of pregnancy complicated by a neural-tube defect, as compared with 10% of controls. We sought to confirm this finding in an Irish population, which traditionally has had a high prevalence of neural-tube defects.

Methods We performed two studies. Study 1 consisted of analysis of stored frozen blood samples collected from 1993 through 1994 from 103 mothers with a history of pregnancy complicated by a neural-tube defect (case mothers), 103 mothers with a history of pregnancy but no complication by a neural-tube defect (matched with regard to number of pregnancies and sampling dates), 58 women who had never been pregnant, and 36 men. Study 2, conducted to confirm that the storage of samples did not influence the folate-receptor autoantibodies, included fresh samples from 37 case mothers, 22 control mothers, 10 women who had never been pregnant, and 9 men. All samples were assayed for blocking and binding autoantibodies against folate receptors.

Results In Study 1, blocking autoantibodies were found in 17% of case mothers, as compared with 13% of control mothers (odds ratio, 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.70 to 3.39), and binding autoantibodies in 29%, as compared with 32%, respectively (odds ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.44 to 1.50). Study 2 showed similar results, indicating that sample degradation was unlikely.

Conclusions The presence and titer of maternal folate-receptor autoantibodies were not significantly associated with a neural-tube defect–affected pregnancy in this Irish population.

Source Information

From the Schools of Medicine (A.M.M.) and Biochemistry and Immunology (A.M.M., J.M. Scott), Trinity College; and the Child Health Epidemiology Unit, Health Research Board (P.N.K.) — both in Dublin; the Departments of Medicine and Cell Biology, State University of New York–Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn (E.V.Q., J.M. Sequeira); and the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (J.F.T., J.L.M.).

Drs. Molloy and Quadros contributed equally to this article.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Molloy at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland, or at amolloy{at}tcd.ie.

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