Effect of dendritic cells on the differentiation of Th1/Th17 in peripheral blood from preeclampsia patients

Objective: To observe the effect of dendritic cells (DCs) derived from peripheral blood monouclear cells (PBMCs) on the differentiation of Th1 and Th17 in normal pregnancy women and preeclampsia patients.

Methods: PBMCs were obtained from 32 preeclampsia patients and 20 normal pregnancy controls, respectively. Then DCs were sorted from peripheral blood monocytes cultured in the presence of cytokines (GM-CSF, IL-4) and LPS for 8 d. The phenotypes of DCs (CD14, CD80, CD83, CD86) were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). The content of IL-23 in the supernatant was detected by ELISA. CD4(+);T lymphocytes were separated using the magnetic BD IMag Cell Separation System according to the manufacturer's instructions. Purified CD4(+);T lymphocytes were clutured with mature DCs derived from normal pregnancy women (N-DC) and IL-2, or with mature DCs derived from preeclampsia patients (P-DC) and IL-2, or with N-DC and IL-1β, IL-6, or with P-DC and IL-1β, IL-6. At 6 days after culture, CD4(+);IFN-γ(+);T(Th1) and CD4(+);IL-17(+);T(Th17) subsets were determined by FCM.

Results: Compared with N-DC, P-DC expressed the higher levels of CD83, CD80, CD86 and manifestated the stronger ability of promoting the differentiation of CD4(+);T into Th1/Th17 when cultured with different cytokines (P<0.01).

Conclusions: The changes in phenotype and function of DCs might be related to immune imbalance and be an important reason for preeclampsia.