Department of Laboratory Medicine, Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Radboud University Medical Center, PO box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Radboud University Medical Center, PO box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 6;7(1):2884. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-03191-0.
Pregnancy requires a delicate immune balance that nurtures the allogeneic fetus, while maintaining reactivity against pathogens. Despite increasing knowledge, data is lacking on the transition of pre-pregnancy endometrial lymphocytes to a pregnancy state. Here, we immunophenotyped lymphocytes from endometrium (MMC), term decidua parietalis (DPMC), and PBMC for direct comparison. We found that the immune cell composition of MMC and DPMC clearly differ from each other, with less NK-cells, and more NKT-cells and T-cells in DPMC. An increased percentage of central memory and effector memory T-cells, and less naive T-cells in DPMC indicates that decidual T-cells are more experienced than endometrial T-cells. The increased percentage of CD4CD25CD127 Treg in DPMC, including differentiated Treg, is indicative of a more experienced and tolerogenic environment during pregnancy. The Th cell composition of both MMC and DPMC was different from PBMC, with a preference for Th1 over Th2 in the uterine environment. Between MMC and DPMC, percentages of Th cell subsets did not differ significantly. Our results suggest that already before pregnancy a tightly controlled Th1/Th2/Th17 balance is present. These findings create opportunities to further investigate the underlying immune mechanism of pregnancy complications using menstrual blood as a source for endometrial lymphocytes.
妊娠需要精细的免疫平衡，既能滋养异体胎儿，又能保持对病原体的反应性。尽管知识不断增加，但关于孕前子宫内膜淋巴细胞向妊娠状态转变的数据仍很缺乏。在这里，我们对子宫内膜（MMC）、足月胎盘壁蜕膜（DPMC）和 PBMC 的淋巴细胞进行免疫表型分析，以便直接进行比较。我们发现 MMC 和 DPMC 的免疫细胞组成明显不同，DPMC 中 NK 细胞较少，NKT 细胞和 T 细胞较多。DPMC 中中心记忆和效应记忆 T 细胞的比例增加，而幼稚 T 细胞的比例减少，表明蜕膜 T 细胞比子宫内膜 T 细胞更有经验。DPMC 中 CD4CD25CD127 Treg 的比例增加，包括分化的 Treg，表明妊娠期间存在更有经验和耐受的环境。MMC 和 DPMC 的 Th 细胞组成均与 PBMC 不同，子宫环境中 Th1 细胞比 Th2 细胞更偏好。在 MMC 和 DPMC 之间，Th 细胞亚群的比例没有显著差异。我们的研究结果表明，在妊娠前就已经存在严格控制的 Th1/Th2/Th17 平衡。这些发现为使用月经血作为子宫内膜淋巴细胞的来源，进一步研究妊娠并发症的潜在免疫机制提供了机会。
