Circulating antiovarian antibodies in premature ovarian failure.

The presence of antiovarian antibodies in sera of women with premature ovarian failure was determined by an indirect fluorescent antibody assay using human ovarian tissue. Of 27 patients, 14 had positive ovarian fluorescence, compared with zero of 24 normal cycling controls (P less than .001) and one of 22 postmenopausal controls (P less than .01). In patients with autoimmune diseases, five of 17 demonstrated positive fluorescence compared with zero of 24 premenopausal controls (P less than .01). Immunoperoxidase staining revealed antigen concentrated at the granulosa cells and oocyte in nine of the 14 ovarian failure cases. The finding that a significant proportion of patients with premature ovarian failure have circulating antiovarian antibodies confirms previous studies, but localization of peroxidase staining to granulosa cells and/or oocytes represents a new finding in this study.