Proteolytic antibodies in the sera of pregnant women: a case control study

The induction of catalytic antibodies (abzymes) was first postulated by Pauling in 1948. Various catalytic antibodies have been detected recently in the sera of patients with several autoimmune pathologies such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, antibodies with DNase and RNase activity have been discovered in the milk and sera of healthy human mothers, which shows the physiologic role of these antibodies. In this study, we examined the proteolytic activity of antibodies in the sera of pregnant women. IgG antibody fractions were isolated from the sera of 30 healthy pregnant women in the first trimester of pregnancy and 10 control samples (men and nonpregnant women)