Division of Basic and Translational Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA.
Division of Basic and Translational Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of Philippines Manila, Manila, Philippines.
J Reprod Immunol. 2024 Jun;163:104239. doi: 10.1016/j.jri.2024.104239. Epub 2024 Mar 16.
Immune cells at the feto-maternal interface play an important role in pregnancy; starting at implantation, maintenance of pregnancy, and parturition. The role of decidual immune cells in induction of labor still needs to be understood. Published reports on this topic show heterogeneity in methods of cell isolation, assay, analysis and cellular characterization making it difficult to collate available information in order to understand the contribution of immune cells at term leading to parturition. In the present study, available literature was reviewed to study the differences in immune cells between the decidua basalis and decidua parietalis, as well as between immune cells in term and preterm labor. Additionally, immune cells at the decidua parietalis were isolated from term not in labor (TNL) or term in labor (TL) samples and characterized via flow cytometry using a comprehensive, high-dimensional antibody panel. This allowed a full view of immune cell differences without combining multiple studies, which must include variation in isolation and analysis methods, for more conclusive data. The ratio of cells found in decidua parietalis in this study generally matched those reported in the literature, although we report a lower percentage of natural killer (NK) cells at term. We report that CD4 expression on CD8 NK cells decreased in term labor compared to not in labor samples, suggesting that natural killer cells may be migrating to other sites during labor. Also, we report a decrease in CD38 expression on CD8 CD57 T cells in labor, indicative of cytotoxic T cell senescence. Our study provides a comprehensive status of immune cells at the decidua-chorion interface at term.
滋养层界面的免疫细胞在妊娠中起着重要作用；从着床开始，维持妊娠和分娩。蜕膜免疫细胞在诱导分娩中的作用仍需要进一步了解。关于这个主题的已发表报告显示，细胞分离、检测、分析和细胞特征分析方法存在异质性，使得难以整理可用信息以了解足月时免疫细胞对分娩的贡献。在本研究中，回顾了现有文献，以研究底蜕膜和壁蜕膜之间免疫细胞的差异，以及足月和早产分娩之间免疫细胞的差异。此外，还从足月未分娩（TNL）或足月分娩（TL）样本中分离壁蜕膜的免疫细胞，并通过使用全面的高维抗体面板进行流式细胞术进行特征描述。这使得可以全面了解免疫细胞的差异，而无需组合多个研究，这些研究必须包括分离和分析方法的变化，以获得更具结论性的数据。本研究中在壁蜕膜中发现的细胞比例通常与文献中报道的比例相匹配，尽管我们报告足月时 NK 细胞的比例较低。我们报告说，与未分娩样本相比，分娩时 CD8 NK 细胞上的 CD4 表达减少，这表明 NK 细胞可能在分娩期间迁移到其他部位。此外，我们还报告说，在分娩时 CD8 CD57 T 细胞上 CD38 的表达减少，这表明细胞毒性 T 细胞衰老。我们的研究提供了足月时蜕膜绒毛界面免疫细胞的全面状况。
