Human Reproduction, Vol. 14, No. 1, 70-75,
January 1999
© 1999 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Anti-nuclear antibodies in patients with premature ovarian failure
1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and 2 Department of Internal Medicine and Laboratory Medicine, St Marianna University School of Medicine, 2–16–1, Sugao, Miyamae-Ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, 216-8511 and 3 Department of Pediatrics, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, 160-0016, Japan.
We examined the prevalence of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) in 32 consecutive patients with premature ovarian failure with and without chromosomal abnormalities. Blood samples were taken for karyotype determination as well as detection of autoantibodies, X-terminal microdeletions and spontaneous follicular growth. The correlation between ANA positivity and the age at onset of amenorrhoea, as well as the presence of karyotype abnormalities, X-terminal microdeletions and follicular growth was determined. Ten of the 24 patients with normal karyotype and none of the 8 patients with karyotype abnormalities were ANA positive. ANA were found more frequently in patients with premature ovarian failure with normal karyotypes than in control amenorrhoeic patients (42 versus 6, P < 0.01). ANA were found in 77% (10/13) of premature ovarian failure patients with normal karyotypes who developed amenorrhoea at or under the age of 30 years, but not in the patients who developed amenorrhoea later in life. Follicular growth was evident in 50% (5/10) of karyotypically normal patients with ANA, 71% (10/14) of karyotypically normal patients without ANA and 38% (3/8) of patients with karyotype abnormalities. X-terminal microdeletions were not found in any of the patients studied. These results suggest that patients with premature ovarian failure and ANA are an aetiologically and clinically distinct group.
Key words: anti-nuclear antibodies/autoimmunity/premature ovarian failure/X-chromosome aberrations
4 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, St Marianna University School of Medicine, 2–16–1 Sugao, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, 216-8511, Japan
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