Circulating immune complexes in pre-eclampsia.

Sixteen patients with severe pre-eclampsia had more IgG-containing and C1q-binding circulating soluble immune complexes than did 16 matched women with normal pregnancies. The clinical features of preeclampsia may be explained by damage due to such complexes, although raised complex levels were also present in a few women with normal pregnancies. As immune complexes are so heterogenous in terms of the type of antigen, class and subclass of immunoglobulin, size, and complement-binding capacity, further investigations are needed to determine their role in normal and pre-eclamptic pregnancies.