Normal Uterine Cervix: Characterization of Isolated Lymphocyte Phenotypes and Immunoglobulin Secretion

Abstract

Isolation of viable cervical lymphocyte populations and characterization of their function in healthy tissue is necessary to understand immunity in the genital tract. Normal, cervical tissue was digested using a multi-enzymatic digestion procedure. Lymphocytes were characterized using FACS analysis and ELISPOT analysis for immunoglobulin secreting cells. Following the digestion procedure, 0.16 x 10(6) +/- 0.8 cells/g of tissue with a viability of 90-98% were isolated from normal cervical tissue. FACS analysis determined that B lymphocytes were the predominant cell type in normal cervical tissue representing a significantly higher percentage than that found in peripheral blood (P = 0.015). T lymphocytes and NK cells represented a significantly lower percentage than that found in peripheral blood (P = 0.0001 and 0.026, respectively). The largest percentage of immunoglobulin secreting cells isolated were secreting IgG followed by IgA. A limited number of IgM secreting cells were detected. IgA2 secreting cells represented 34.46 +/- 4.6% of the total number of IgA plasma cells. These studies represent the first analysis of viable mononuclear cells isolated from normal cervical tissue. The results form a baseline from which it will now be possible to compare changes that occur at the cervical squamocolumnar junction in response to infection or neoplasia.