Decreased frequency of peripheral blood CD8⁺CD25⁺FoxP3⁺regulatory T cells correlates with IL-33 levels in pre-eclampsia

ABSTRACT

Objective: We aimed to investigate the role of CD8⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺regulatory T (Treg) cells in pre-eclampsia (PE).

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 46 patients with PE and 24 normotensive women within the third trimester of gestation. We analyzed the percentages of CD8⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺Treg cells in peripheral blood using flow cytometry and the serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-17A, IL-10, TGF-β1, IL-1β, and IL-33 by Luminex 200.

Results: We found that patients with PE had lower percentages of CD8⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺Treg cells than normotensive pregnant women. In addition, the percentage of CD8⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺Treg cells was positively correlated with IL-33 concentration and negatively correlated with IL-17A concentration in patients with PE. We also found that IL-33 treatment can induce proliferation of CD8⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺Treg cells in vitro.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that the reduced CD8⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺Treg cells may play a role in the pathogenesis of PE.

Abbreviations

PE: pre-eclampsia; PBMCs: peripheral blood mononuclear cells; CTLA-4: cytotoxic T-lymphocyteantigen-4; APCs: antigen presenting cells; TGF-β: transforming growth factor-β; IL: interleukin; Treg: cells regulatory T cells; PBS: phosphate-buffered saline; Foxp3: forkhead Box protein 3; HELLPs: hemolysis, elevated liver enzyme and low platelet syndrome

KEYWORDS:

• CD8⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺Treg
• interleukin-33
• pre-eclampsia

Conflicts of interest

The authors have declared no conflicting interests.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant-in-aid from the Medical Science and Development Program, Yanchen, China (YK2015065).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant-in-aid from the Medical Science and Development Program, Yanchen, China (YK2015065).

Notes on contributors

Jianxiu Yu

Jianxiu Yu and Lei Qiana contributed equally to this work and should be considered as first authors.

Hongyou Wang

Jianxiu Yu and Lei Qiana contributed equally to this work and should be considered as first authors.