Decreased Natural Killer Cell Activity in Women with Endometriosis

Eiichi Tanaka, E Tanaka, F Sendo, Fujiro Sendo, S Kawagoe, Shinnosuke Kawagoe, Masahiko Hiwi, M Hiroi
Gynecologic and obstetric investigation · 2010 · vol. 34(1) , pp. 27–30 · doi:10.1159/000292720 · PMID:1526528 · W2091228964
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 61 in-corpus citations
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Women with endometriosis exhibit decreased peripheral blood natural killer cell activity, which is further suppressed by their serum.

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Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cell activity is characterized by the spontaneous capacity of lymphoid cells derived from nonimmunized hosts to recognize and lyse certain tumor cell lines, virus-infected cells and transplanted tumor cell lines. Endometriosis is characterized by implantation and proliferation of autologous ectopic tissue in the pelvic cavity. Therefore, we focused on examining NK cell activity in women with endometriosis. NK cell activity in peripheral blood from women with endometriosis was lower than in women without endometriosis. On the basis of this finding, we analyzed also the effect of peripheral sera of women with endometriosis on NK cell activity. In the presence of peripheral sera of women with endometriosis, NK cell activity was significantly suppressed as compared with the sera of women without endometriosis. The suppressive effect of sera of women with endometriosis on NK cell activity showed dose-dependent curves. These studies provide the speculation that natural immunity mediated by NK cells may modulate the development of endometrial implants.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Killer Cells, Natural Uterine Neoplasms Cytotoxicity, Immunologic Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Killer Cells, Natural Killer Cells, Natural Uterine Neoplasms Uterine Neoplasms

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