The relationship between the enzyme phosphatidate phosphohydrolase (PAPase) and lecithin/sphingomyelin (L/S) ratio in amniotic fluid was evaluated in normal human pregnancies and in several pregnancies complicated by Rh isoimmunization. An increase in PAPase activity in amniotic fluid appears to parallel the increase in L/S ratio after 33 weeks gestation in normal subjects. These data suggest t...

Literature on immunological aspects of reproductive biology is reviewed. Topics discussed include 1) immunological aspects of choriocarcinoma, 2) the female response to various antigens of semen, 3) the uterus as an immunologically "privileged" site, 4) the elicitation and expression of immunity in the uterus, 5) the influence of histoincompatibility and the immune status of the mother as det...

By subcutaneous injection of central nervous tissue emulsified with adjuvants according to Freund's technique it has been possible to induce in the majority of monkeys an acute disseminated encephalomyelitis which is interpreted as an isoimmunization to CNS tissue. Positive reactions occurred only in response to CNS tissue containing white matter; i.e., cerebral white matter, spinal cord (wheth...

Thirty-seven fetuses with severe rhesus isoimmunization with a gestational age of less than 30 week underwent 92 intravascular transfusions. Of these, 77 were intracardiac, 13 umbilical vein and two umbilical artery transfusions. Procedure related complications occurred at eight (10%) intracardiac and at two (14%) umbilical cord transfusions. Reversal of hydrops was observed in 10 of 16 fetuses...

McEnery, G., and Stern, H. (1970). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 45, 669. Cytomegalovirus infection in early infancy. Five cases of neonatal cytomegalovirus infection are described. None of them had the classical picture of neonatal cytomegalic inclusion disease. Two were cases of rhesus isoimmunization and two others were regarded initially as possible cases of ABO incompatibility. They we...

OBJECTIVE To provide population based data on the treatment requirements of infants with rhesus isoimmunisation. SETTING Twenty nine hospitals in South Thames in which 81 119 deliveries occurred between February 1999 and January 2000. DESIGN Every month, a clinician identified in each of the hospitals sent back a postcard indicating whether or not an infant with RhD had required treatment i...

The purpose of this article is to review the state of the art of immunization against malaria using the organism’s sporozoite stage, and to summarize some recent progress in this area, mainly by defining the specificity of the immune response to sporozoites of human and simian malaria. It also reports preliminary results obtained by immunizing Rhesus monkeys with irradiated sporozoites of Plasm...