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Cervical leukocytes and spontaneous preterm birth

Hunter, PJ; Sheikh, S; David, AL; Peebles, DM; Klein, N; (2016) Cervical leukocytes and spontaneous preterm birth. Journal of Reproductive Immunology , 113 pp. 42-49. 10.1016/j.jri.2015.11.002. Green open access

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Abstract

The objective was to characterise cervical leukocyte populations and inflammatory mediators associated with term and recurrent spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB) in pregnant women with a history of SPTB. A prospective observational study was undertaken on 120 women with a history of SPTB. A cytobrush was used to sample cells from the cervix at 12-25 weeks' gestation. Cells were enumerated and characterised by flow cytometry. Cytokines and chemokines were also measured. Participants were then grouped according to delivery at term (>36+6 weeks), late SPTB (34-36+6 weeks) or early SPTB (<34 weeks). Differences in leukocyte sub-populations, cytokine and chemokine levels were compared with outcome. Cervical leukocytes comprised up to 60% of the host-derived cells. Most of these (90-100%) were polymorphonuclear cells (PMN). Most of the remaining cells were mucosal macrophages expressing CD68 and CD103 in addition to markers shared with blood-borne monocytes. Failure to detect cervical macrophages in at least 250,000 cervical epithelial cells was a feature of women who experienced early SPTB (6 out of 6 cases, 95% CI 61-100%) compared with 34% (30 out of 88 cases, 95% CI 25-43%, P<0.001) of women delivering after 34 weeks. CCL2 (MCP-1) was also low in SPTB before 34 weeks and levels above 75ng/g and/or the presence of macrophages increased the specificity for birth after 34 weeks from 66% to 82% (55 out of 67 cases, 95% CI 73-91%). Absence of cervical macrophages and low CCL2 may be features of pregnancies at risk of early SPTB.

Type: Article
Title: Cervical leukocytes and spontaneous preterm birth
Location: Ireland
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.jri.2015.11.002
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jri.2015.11.002
Language: English
Additional information: © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Flow cytometry, Leukocyte, Macrophage, Polymorphonuclear cell, Spontaneous preterm birth
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health > Maternal and Fetal Medicine
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Infection, Immunity and Inflammation Dept
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1476531
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