Alice Gilman-Sachs, Ph.D.,a Sung-Ki Lee, M.D.,a,b,d and Kenneth Beaman, Ph.D.a ... of Medicine and Science/The Chicago Medical School, North Chicago, ...
RECURRENT PREGNANCY LOSS Intracellular cytokine expression of peripheral blood natural killer cell subsets in women with recurrent spontaneous abortions and implantation failures Atsushi Fukui, M.D.,a,c Joanne Kwak-Kim, M.D.,a,b Evangelos Ntrivalas, M.D.,a Alice Gilman-Sachs, Ph.D.,a Sung-Ki Lee, M.D.,a,b,d and Kenneth Beaman, Ph.D.a a
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and b Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science/The Chicago Medical School, North Chicago, Illinois; c Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, Hirosaki, Japan; and d Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea
Objective: To investigate the cytokine expression by peripheral blood natural killer (NK) cells of women with recurrent spontaneous abortion (SAB) or implantation failures. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: University clinic. Patient(s): Twenty-five women with recurrent SAB, 20 women with implantation failures, and 15 healthy controls. Intervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): Cytokine expression (interferon-g, tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-a, interleukin [IL]-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor [GM-CSF]) in NK cells and their subsets (CD56dim and CD56bright). Result(s): Proportion (percentage) of CD56bright/interferon-gþ/TNF-aþ cells was significantly higher in women with recurrent SAB and implantation failures as compared with that of healthy controls. Proportion of CD56bright/ IL-4þ/IL-10þ cells was very low (
