Abstract
BackgroundImmune dysregulation is one of the mechanisms to promote endometriosis (EMS). Various T cell subpopulations have been reported to play different roles in the development of EMS. The mucosa-associated invariant T cell (MAIT) is an important T cell subset in the pathogenesis of various autoimmune diseases. Evidence has indicated that there are three functionally distinct MAIT subsets: CD4+, CD8+ and CD4/CD8−/− (double negative, DN) MAIT cells. Till now, the associations between endometriosis and MAIT have not been studied. Our research investigates different MAIT subpopulations in peripheral blood (PB) and peritoneal fluid (PF) from EMS patients.MethodsThirty-two EMS patients and eighteen controls were included. PB and PF were collected. Tests of cytokines in plasma and PF were performed by ELISA kit. Characterisations of MAIT were done by flow cytometry. MAIT cells have been defined as CD3 + CD161 + Vα7.2+ cells. Based on CD4 and CD8 expression, they were divided into CD8+MAIT, CD4+MAIT and DN MAIT.ResultsEnrichments of MAIT cells, especially CD4 and CD8 MAIT subsets were found. Moreover, CD8 MAIT cells had a high activation in the EMS group. EMS patients produced higher level of IL-8/12/17 as compared to these from controls. On the contrary, control patients exhibited an impressive upregulation of DN MAIT cells, however, these DN MAIT cells from controls showed a higher expression of PD-1. Lastly, we performed the relevance analysis, and discovered that the accumulation of PB MAIT cells positively correlated with an elevated level of serum CA125 production in EMS group.ConclusionThese results suggest that different MAIT subsets play distinct roles in the progression of endometriosis.
Highlights
Endometriosis (EMS) is a chronic disease which is characterised by the presence of endometrial cells outside the uterus [1, 2]
Since endometriosis has been reported to be a chronic inflammatory disease with malignant activities, what kind of role will mucosa-associated invariant T cell (MAIT) cells play in endometriosis? Will they promote or prevent the development of endometriosis? Our study aims to assess the immune disorder of endometriosis by analyzing MAIT cell subpopulations and cytokine levels in the peritoneal fluid (PF) and peripheral blood (PB) from patients with endometriosis and controls
Presence of MAIT cells in PB and PF from patients To clarify the role of MAIT cells in the pathogenesis of endometriosis, we first tried to examine their existence in the PB (Fig. 1a) and PF (Fig. 1b) from endometriosis patients and controls
Summary
Endometriosis (EMS) is a chronic disease which is characterised by the presence of endometrial cells outside the uterus [1, 2]. (myeloid derived suppressor cells), which have been suggested recently to promote the implantation of endometrial tissue [13, 14]. All these evidences pointed to the fact that the impaired immune response exists in endometriosis. Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are nonclassical T lymphocytes characterised by a semiinvariant T cell receptor (TCR) which has been evolutionarily conserved [15,16,17,18] This TCR consists of a restricted α chain (Vα7.2-Jα33 in humans and Vα19-Jα33 in mice) and one of the several β chains [16, 17]. Our research investigates different MAIT subpopulations in peripheral blood (PB) and peritoneal fluid (PF) from EMS patients
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