Characteristics of Peripheral Immune Function in Reproductive Females with Uterine Leiomyoma

Abstract

Inflammation and immunity are thought as risk factors for uterine leiomyoma; however, detailed reports on this topic are scarce. The present study aimed to analyze the characteristics of immune function and clinical significance of circulating CD4/CD8 T, NK, and γδ T cells in reproductive females with uterine leiomyoma. We analyzed the above-mentioned cells in 30 reproductive females with uterine leiomyoma and 68 healthy females using flow cytometry. After that, the correlation between function of immune cells and clinical phenotypes was analyzed. Compared with healthy controls, central memory (CM) CD4/CD8 T cells as well as Treg and Tfh cells were notably increased in leiomyoma patients; however, NK and γδ T cells were decreased in patients. Moreover, such alterations of these cells in patients with leiomyoma were associated with shorter menstrual cycles, longer menstrual period, anemia, pelvic lesions, more and larger myomas, and higher levels of CA125. Additionally, the increased Tfh1/Tfh2 ratio and Tfh17 were significantly associated with longer menstrual period, more myomas, and higher CA125 levels independent of age in patients with uterine leiomyoma. In conclusion, hallmarks of peripheral immune function are remarkably correlated with clinical phenotypes in reproductive females with uterine leiomyoma. This preliminary work may provide proof-of-concept for evaluating efficacy of treatment and prognosis of reproductive females with uterine leiomyoma with the help of quantitative analysis of peripheral immune function, which may inspire performing further investigations on the relevance of immune function with different diseases.