Role of decidual natural killer (NK) cells in patients with missed abortion: differences between cases with normal and abnormal chromosome

Abstract

In order to study the mechanism of abortion, the proportions of NK cells in the peripheral blood and decidual lymphocytes were evaluated in both chromosomally normal and abnormal missed abortions. In normal pregnancy, CD56⁺16⁻3⁻NK cells are a major element of decidual lymphocytes. The percentages of CD56⁺16⁻3⁻NK cells of peripheral lymphocytes in normal pregnancies were not statistically significantly different from those of chromosomally normal and abnormal abortions. In the decidua, the percentages of CD56⁺16⁻3⁻ NK cells of decidual lymphocytes showed no statistically significant differences between normal pregnancies and chromosomally abnormal abortions. However, the percentages of CD56⁺16⁻3⁻NK cells of chromosomally normal abortions were lower than those of chromosomally abnormal (P = 0.0025). Moreover, the percentages of CD56⁺16⁻ NK cells in abortions with normal chromosomes were lower than those in normal pregnancies or abortions with abnormal chromosomes (P = 0.0037, P = 0.0025). However, when the proportion of CD56⁺NK cells expressing CD16 was evaluated, there were no statistically significant differences in the percentages of CD56⁺16⁺ NK cells in normal pregnancies and missed abortions with normal chromosomes and abnormal chromosomes. We conclude that the expression of decidual CD56⁺16⁻3⁻ NK cells in missed abortions with normal chromosomes is different from abortions with abnormal chromosomes and that this phenomenon may depend on an abnormal immune response of the maternal side.