Spontaneous abortion occurs in one of every five pregnancies. Infec- tion with Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasites among many other reasons is accused as a cause of mis- carriage. However, it is not subject to unanimity. The current observational cross sectional study aims to shed more light on the potential role of T. gondii infection and the accompanying placental inflammation and Fas ligand (FasL) as a cause of spontaneous abor- tion in pregnant women from Benha City, Egypt. Sera and placental tissues from 37 women with spontaneous abortion and 25 women with normal delivery were tested for IgG and IgM anti-Toxoplasma antibodies, placental inflammation and FasL expression by ELISA method, histopathological ex- amination of Hematoxylin-eosin stain- ing and immunohistochemical exami- nation, respectively.Out of 37 abortion cases investi- gated, 27/37 (73%) were found to be anti-T. gondii seropositive. While only 7/25 (28%) were found in the full term control group. All the T. gondii sero- positive abortion cases showed placen-
tal villitis and intervillositis. While only two (29%) of T. gondii seroposi- tive control cases show such inflamma- tion. This significant difference was noticed only in anti-toxoplasma IgG seropositive cases but not in IgM posi- tive. FasL expression was detected in all placental tissues of T. gondii posi- tive aborted cases regardless the de- tected immunoglobulin type. While no FasL expression could be found in placenta of full term control group, even among the toxoplasmosis positive cases. Our study emphasizes the role of chronic toxoplasmosis as a cause of spontaneous abortion and chronic in- flammatory lesion and apoptosis medi- ated by Fas/FasL reaction as possible mechanisms of abortion.
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