Association of the Secretor State with the presence and recurrence of urinary infections in pregnant women

BIONDI C; COTORRUELO C; BALAGUÉ C; TORESANI I; RACCA L; DI MÓNACO R; FERNANDEZ L; RACCA A

ANNALS OF CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRY

Royal Society of Medicine Press

Lugar: Guildford; Año: 1999 vol. 36 p. 391 - 392

0004-5632

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common medical complication of pregnancy. The binding of bacteria to urinary tract epithelial cells is an important step in the development of UTI. The receptors for uropathogenic organisms are carbohydrate residues located on surface of urothelial cells. Blood group antigens (A, B, H, Lea, Leb) are also a group of carbohydrate determinants, found in erythrocytes and certain epithelial tissues. The presence or absence of these antigens on the urothelilal cell surface may influence individual susceptibility to UTI. ABH and Lewis antigens are present in bodily fluids of individual expressing the ?secretor state?. It is possible that if the secretion of blood group antigens is a protective factor in host-parasite interactions then there willl be an increased incidence of no-secretors among pregnant women with UTI. The aim of this work was to investigate this hypothesis. We analyzed 327 pregnant women performing uroculture, mannose adhesins, hemolysin production, ABO phenotyping and secretor state. Among the patients with UTI, 76,2% were non secretor while in controls this value was 12,9%. The UTI and non secretor state relative risk found was 21,65 (95% confidence interval, 10,6 to 41,0). We have demonstrated that the presentation and recurrence of UTI in pregnant women is higher in non secretors. We postulate that in these patients, fimbriated micro-organism cannot be eliminated by their binding to carbohydrates in the body fluids.