Accumulation of IL-17-Positive Cells in Decidua of Inevitable Abortion Cases

Citation Nakashima A, Ito M, Shima T, Bac ND, Hidaka T, Saito S. Accumulation of IL‐17‐positive cells in decidua of inevitable abortion cases. Am J Reprod Immunol 2010 Problem Th17 cells, a new subset of helper T cells, have been focused on as a producer pro‐inflammatory cytokines. It is, however, still unknown how Th17 cells affect pregnancy outcome. We investigated the expression of IL‐17‐producing cells in human spontaneous abortion. Method of study IL‐17 expression was analyzed in decidual tissues among normal pregnancy, missed abortion, and inevitable abortion cases by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. Results IL‐17+ cells were accumulated in decidua and were detected in decidual CD4+ T cells and few decidual CD8+ T cells in spontaneous abortion cases. The number of decidual IL‐17+ cells in inevitable abortion cases involving active genital bleeding was significantly higher than that in normal pregnancy cases (P