Flow Cytometry Analysis of Lymphocyte Subpopulations in Peritoneal Fluid of Women With Endometriosis

Abstract

PFMC consisted mainly of phagocytic and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-restricted or HLA unrestricted cytotoxic cells capable of reacting to various antigens entering the cavity from the lower genital tractus. Furthermore, the decreased NK activity reported in PB and PF of women with endometriosis was not likely to be caused by a quantitative defect, since the percentage of NK positive lymphocytes was not different between women with and without endometriosis.

Endometrial-Peritoneal Interactions during Endometriotic Lesion Establishment

“…41 TGF-␤1 was a central factor in another xenograft-derived ingenuity pathway ( Figure 3C), and several ECM transcripts (COL1A2, COL3A1, FN1, and MGP) were downstream of TGF-␤1 in the IPA networks generated from nude mouse lesions. Furthermore, elevated levels of TGF-␤1 are present in the peritoneal fluid from women with endometriosis, 42 and endometriosis is associated with a Thy2 immune response pattern. 43,44 Myofibroblast-associated transcripts were present in both human and nude mouse microarray gene lists, for example ␣-SMA (ACTA2).…”

IL15 promotes growth and invasion of endometrial stromal cells and inhibits killing activity of NK cells in endometriosis

“…It has been proven that the number of peripheral blood and abdominal NK cells in EMS patients has no significant difference ( Oosterlynck et al 1994, Matsuoka et al 2005. However, the activity visibly weakens, and the impaired degree of NK cell activity positively correlates with EMS development.…”

Phenotypic and functional studies of leukocytes in human endometrium and endometriosis

“…Many studies have focused on the role of natural killer (NK) cells, with the majority showing some degree of NK-cell dysfunction (Oosterlynck et al, 1991(Oosterlynck et al, , 1992Vigano et al, 1991;Tanaka et al, 1992;Garzetti et al, 1993Garzetti et al, , 1995Iwasaki et al, 1993;Wilson et al, 1994;Ho et al, 1995). Others have demonstrated increased numbers of activated macrophages in women with endometriosis (Oosterlynck et al, 1994;Becker et al, 1995). These studies suggest a role for altered cell-mediated immunity in the development of endometriosis, but the exact mechanism by which this is mediated remains unclear.…”