Possible Role of HLA-G, LILRB1 and KIR2DL4 Gene Polymorphisms in Spontaneous Miscarriage

The KIR2DL4 receptor and its ligand HLA-G are considered important for fetal-maternal immune tolerance and successful pregnancy. The absence of a particular variant of KIR2DL4 might be a bad prognostic factor for pregnancy outcome. However, it could be compensated by the presence of the respective LILRB1 allele. Therefore, we investigated the KIR2DL4, LILRB1 and HLA-G polymorphisms in 277 couples with spontaneous abortion and 219 control couples by HRM, PCR-SSP and RFLP methods. We found a protective effect of women’s heterozygosity in −716 HLA-G (p = 0.0206) and LILRB1 (p = 0.0131) against spontaneous abortion. Surprisingly, we observed more 9A/10A genotypes of KIR2DL4 gene carriers in the group of male partners from the miscarriage group in comparison to the men from the control group (p = 0.0288). Furthermore, there was no association of women’s KIR2DL4 polymorphism with susceptibility to spontaneous abortion. Multivariate analysis indicated that women’s −716 HLA-G and LILRB1 and men’s KIR2DL4 9A/10A are important in terms of the protection or susceptibility to miscarriage, respectively (p = 0.00968). In conclusion, a woman’s heterozygosity in HLA-G and LILRB1 might be an advantage for a success of reproduction, but the partner’s heterozygosity in 9A/10A KIR2DL4 alleles might not. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00005-016-0389-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.