Habitual miscarriage, the cause of the mother “does not recognize” the baby

Repeated spontaneous miscarriage, also known as habitual miscarriage, refers to the occurrence of spontaneous miscarriage for three or more times in a row. As the name implies, miscarriage is not a good thing, and when combined with habitual or recurrent, it is even worse, not only causing the pregnant woman a lot of pain, but also overshadowing the happiness of the family.  The clinical incidence of recurrent spontaneous abortion is high, with one patient in every 400 couples. There are many factors leading to recurrent spontaneous abortion, including genetics, immunity, anatomy, endocrine, infection and embryonic malformation, etc. A large proportion of patients have unknown causes, and about 40% of them are related to immune abnormalities.  Natural pregnancy is a natural allogeneic transfer, which is actually an immune tolerance of the mother to the embryonic antigens. Most of the pregnancy failures are due to abnormal maternal immune recognition of the fetus, i.e., immune rejection, which prevents the fetus from being “planted” in the mother and aborts. Therefore, induction of maternal-fetal immune tolerance – allowing the mother to “accept” the “flesh and blood” without rejection – is the main goal of treatment of recurrent spontaneous abortion. Abnormal maternal-fetal immune recognition can be divided into 3 categories: hypo, hyper and complex, with different treatment methods.  The normal maintenance of maternal-fetal immune recognition requires the participation of immune regulation, one of which is the effect of specific antibodies. These antibodies are produced in normal maternal serum mainly against embryonic HLA antigens and TLX antigens, which are mainly expressed in trophoblast cells, and prevent the embryonic paternal antigens from being recognized and killed by the maternal immune system by binding to the corresponding antigens, thus maintaining a normal pregnancy. In patients with maternal-fetal immune recognition deficiency, the mother is unable to produce effective closed antibodies to some antigens on the embryo, allowing sensitized T cells the opportunity to attack the embryo, manifesting as a closed antibody deficiency.  For this type of patient, the goal of treatment is to induce maternal production of closed antibodies. Currently, leukocyte immunotherapy is used: 50 ml of venous blood is drawn from the husband or a healthy third party (an unrelated healthy male of the patient’s own choice), anticoagulated to make a suspension of leukocytes, and injected into the patient. When the patient is found to be positive for closed antibodies after one stage of treatment, conception can be arranged and the immunization is reinforced at different times during the course of pregnancy until 20 weeks of gestation.  Chinese herbal medicine has a long history of antifetus with clear efficacy. For patients with kidney deficiency and fetal incompetence, the herbs Dang Ginseng, Atractylodes Macrocephalae, Radix Paeoniae Alba, Scutellariae Rhizoma, Radix et Rhizoma Polygonati, Cuscutae etc. can be given to tonify the kidney and benefit the qi to calm the fetus. The study confirmed that herbal compound treatment can also induce maternal-fetal immune tolerance mediated by closed antibody and play a role in fetal preservation, with a success rate of 88.2%.  In a normal pregnancy, the mother is negative for both zona pellucida and phospholipid antibodies. Patients with maternal-fetal immune over-recognition are: 1) positive for anti-Zona pellucida antibodies or phospholipid antibodies. Anti-Zona pellucida antibodies can damage the pregnant eggs containing the zona pellucida, and the pregnant eggs after implantation cannot develop normally due to the pre-injury, thus leading to spontaneous abortion; 2) phospholipid antibodies can cause the formation of microcirculatory thrombosis in the placenta. This leads to meconium vasculitis and meconium vascular embolism; 3. Maternal-fetal ABO blood group incompatibility can also trigger excessive abnormalities in immune recognition. For patients with positive antibodies to zona pellucida, the Chinese medicine Zhi Bai Di Huang Wan can be taken according to the principle of nourishing kidney yin and clearing deficiency fire in Chinese medicine.  For patients with positive phospholipid antibodies or ABO blood group incompatibility, the TCM treatment is to clear heat and dampness, nourish blood and invigorate blood, and treat both the symptoms and the root cause. Patients with positive phospholipid antibodies need to add small doses of aspirin.  This type of patient shows both a lack of closed antibodies, showing low maternal-fetal alloimmune recognition, and an abnormal increase in maternal autoimmunity and alloimmune damage. This type is uncommon, but its etiology is complex. The essence of this type is that the mother’s own immune regulation is disturbed, resulting in maternal-fetal immune regulation disorder, which causes the embryo to be attacked by the maternal immune system and miscarriage occurs. The addition of small doses of aspirin to leukocyte immunotherapy can achieve good clinical results.