What is LIT?

Lymphocyte Immunisation Therapy is performed with the help of lymphocytes, a type of white blood cells. The cells are taken from a healthy donor. The donor could generally be the prospective father or someone else depending on the circumstances and the immune issues that have been diagnosed. The fresh lymphocyte sample is prepared just before the treatment procedure takes place. The process offers a concentrated solution of lymphocytes. The prepared sample is injected into the skin (intradermal) and below the skin (subcutaneous) of the prospective mother. A series of such injections are made to complete the therapy.

 

What is recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL)?

 

When a person suffers from two or more failed pregnancies, the condition is termed as a Recurrent Pregnancy Loss. It can affect as much as 5% of all pregnant women. RPL can be generally classified into two types - primary RPL and secondary RPL. The primary RPL aborters are those where all the previous pregnancies have been lost and there has been no live birth. The secondary RPL aborters can be differentiated in the sense that they should have had at least one successful pregnancy. The number of pregnancy losses, in this case, would not matter. In 50-60% of the patients who are going through recurrent pregnancy losses, the cause is unknown.

 

It is, however, clear that most of the known causes are hormonal abnormalities, some chromosomal or genetic causes, uterine or metabolic abnormalities, thrombophilias, antiphospholipid syndrome or male-factor. In unexplained RPL, the case is considered as a model of immunological rejection of the foetus by the body of the mother. One of the best treatments, in this case, is LIT or lymphocyte immunisation therapy.

 

After the course of LIT treatment, the couple is asked to make attempts at conception after 4-6 weeks. Some cases would require a booster treatment in the early days of pregnancy. A comprehensive infection screening is required for each of the blood donors. This test needs to be taken immediately before the donation. The patients would mostly suffer no side effects. The most common effects include redness and itching at the injection site.

 

What is the Leukocyte Antibody Detection test?

 

The Leukocyte Antibody Detection or LAD test is used to measure the level of antibodies in the blood that causes a reaction. The reaction is measured against the proteins of the non-self blood cells, mostly paternal. The antibodies are very crucial as they are known to act in ways that protect the pregnancy. It has been seen that the women who have gone through repeated miscarriages or seem to have implantation failure have low levels of LAD in their blood. It has been seen that in such cases that the birth rate can be improved with the help of LIT. This is because the level of blocking antibodies in the blood is increased by LIT

 

Thus LIT can be considered as a very good therapy for mothers who are going through recurrent pregnancy loss.