Increased frequency of human leukocyte antigen–E inhibitory receptor CD94/NKG2A–expressing peritoneal natural killer cells in patients with endometriosis

Ricciarda Galandrini, Galandrini R, Maria Grazia Porpora, Antonella Stoppacciaro, Federica Micucci, Micucci F, Cristina Capuano, Alessia Di Felice, Ilaria Tassi, Di Felice A, Pierluigi Benedetti Panici, Pierluigi Benedetti-Panici, Benedetti-Panici P, Angela Santoni, Santoni A
Fertility and sterility · 2007 · vol. 89(5) , pp. 1490–1496 · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2007.05.018 · PMID:17706207 · W2003703920
article OA: green CC0 ⤵ 36 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This study investigated the frequency of CD94/NKG2A-expressing peritoneal natural killer cells in endometriosis patients, finding an increased frequency compared to controls.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

ObjectiveTo analyze the frequency of peritoneal natural killer (NK) cells expressing the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-E receptor CD94/NKG2A in patients with endometriosis.DesignCase-control study.SettingUniversity hospital.Patient(s)Stage III and stage IV endometriosis, according to the revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine classification, was laparoscopically and histologically confirmed in 11 and 9 patients, respectively; 13 subjects without endometriosis were selected for the control group.Intervention(s)Collection of peripheral venous blood, peritoneal fluid, endometriotic tissue, and normal endometrium in subjects undergoing laparoscopy.Main outcome measure(s)Surface expression levels of CD94/NKG2A and CD94/NKG2C were detected by three-color cytofluorometric analysis. Semiquantitative HLA-E messenger RNA expression analysis was performed in endometriotic lesions and in eutopic endometrium. NK cell-mediated cytotoxic activity toward HLA-E positive target, DT360 cell line, was also determined.Result(s)In women with endometriosis, the percentage of CD94/NKG2A-positive peritoneal NK cells was significantly higher than in the control group. The CD94/NKG2A ligand, HLA-E, was detected at high levels in endometriotic tissue as messenger RNA transcript. Target cells bearing HLA-E were resistant to NK cell-mediated lysis in a CD94/NKG2A-dependent manner.Conclusion(s)Increased expression of CD94/NKG2A in peritoneal NK cells may mediate the resistance of endometriotic tissue to NK cell-mediated lysis, thus contributing to the progression of the disease.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Ascitic Fluid Endometriosis Killer Cells, Natural NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily D Receptors, Immunologic Adult Ascitic Fluid Ascitic Fluid Ascitic Fluid Case-Control Studies Disease Progression Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Histocompatibility Antigens Class I Histocompatibility Antigens Class I Histocompatibility Antigens Class I HLA Antigens

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (37)

Cited by (39)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-07T06:07:27.085738+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:14:48.452140+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK