We planned the study in order to evaluate the relationship of the T lymphocytes and the cytokines with healthy pregnancies and recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA).

The groups are designed as group 1; nonpregnant women (n=18), group 2; women in their first trimester pregnancy and completed the pregnancies until term without any complication (n=18), group 3; patients with sporadic spontaneous abortion (n=18), group 4; patients with RSA (n=17), group 5; women with a history of RSA and completed these pregnancies till term (n=17). Peripheral blood samples were collected at early follicular phase in group 1, at first trimester in both group 2 and group 5 and at the time of abortion in both group 3 and group 4. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was used for the measurement of serum concentrations of IFN-γ , TNF-α, IL-4, IL-10. Flow Cytometry was used for detection of the percentages of T lymphocytes subpopulations (CD4⁺, CD8⁺) just after the peripheral blood samples obtained. One way variance analysis was used for the comparison between the percentage of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ lymphocytes. Post hoc Tukey’s HSD test was used if necessary. Kruskal-Wallis analysis was used for cytokine concentrations and Mann-Whitney U test was used if necessary. SPSS 10.0 for Windows programme was used for all of the statistical analysis.

There were no statistically significant differences in the concentrations of the serum IFN-γ , TNF-α and IL-4 between all groups (p>0.05). IL-10 concentrations were statistically higher in all pregnants (Group 2, 3, 4, 5) than nonpregnants (Group 1) (p<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in the percentages of both CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ between the groups (p>0.05).

As a conclusion of this study; it is thought that there is a relationship between healthy pregnancies and increased serum Th2 response, and there is inadequate Th2 response in RSA.