Proportion of peripheral blood and decidual CD4+ CD25bright regulatory T cells in pre‐eclampsia

CD4+ CD25bright regulatory T (Treg) cells have been identified as a principle regulator of tolerance during pregnancy. In the setting of pre‐eclampsia, however, little is known about the dynamics of these cells. In the current study, we determined CD4+ CD25bright Treg cells in the peripheral blood using flow cytometry and forkhead box P3 (FoxP3+) cells at the placental bed using immunohistochemical staining. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of 38 pre‐eclamptic cases (17 cases Japanese, 21 cases Polish), 40 normal late pregnancy subjects (20 subjects Japanese, 20 subjects Polish), and 21 non‐pregnant healthy controls (10 subjects Japanese, 11 subjects Polish) were included. We found the percentage of CD25bright cells within the CD4+ T cell population in PBMC was reduced significantly in both Japanese and Polish pre‐eclamptic cases than in normal pregnancy subjects (P < 0·001) and non‐pregnant healthy controls (P < 0·001). Also, the percentage of FoxP3+ cells within CD3+ T cells in the placental bed biopsy samples of pre‐eclamptic cases were decreased compared to those in normal pregnancy subjects. These findings suggest that a decreased number of Treg cells was present in pre‐eclampsia, and these changes might break the maternal tolerance to the fetus.

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