Maternal circulating leukocytes display early chemotactic responsiveness during late gestation
Date
2013
Authors
Gomez-Lopez, Nardhy
Tanaka, Satomi
Zaeem, Zoya
Metz, Gerlinde A. S.
Olson, David M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Biomed Central Ltd
Abstract
Background: Parturition has been widely described as an immunological response; however, it is unknown how
this is triggered. We hypothesized that an early event in parturition is an increased responsiveness of peripheral
leukocytes to chemotactic stimuli expressed by reproductive tissues, and this precedes expression of tissue
chemotactic activity, uterine activation and the systemic progesterone/estradiol shift.
Methods: Tissues and blood were collected from pregnant Long-Evans rats on gestational days (GD) 17, 20 and 22
(term gestation). We employed a validated Boyden chamber assay, flow cytometry, quantitative real timepolymerase
chain reaction, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.
Results: We found that GD20 maternal peripheral leukocytes migrated more than those from GD17 when these
were tested with GD22 uterus and cervix extracts. Leukocytes on GD20 also displayed a significant increase in
chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (Ccl2) gene expression and this correlated with an increase in peripheral
granulocyte proportions and a decrease in B cell and monocyte proportions. Tissue chemotactic activity and
specific chemokines (CCL2, chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1/CXCL1, and CXCL10) were mostly unchanged from
GD17 to GD20 and increased only on GD22. CXCL10 peaked on GD20 in cervical tissues. As expected,
prostaglandin F2a receptor and oxytocin receptor gene expression increased dramatically between GD20 and 22.
Progesterone concentrations fell and estradiol-17b concentrations increased in peripheral serum, cervical and
uterine tissue extracts between GD20 and 22.
Conclusion: Maternal circulating leukocytes display early chemotactic responsiveness, which leads to their
infiltration into the uterus where they may participate in the process of parturition.
Description
Sherpa Romeo green journal: open access
Keywords
Maternal circulating leukocytes , Chemotactic , Gestation , Long-Evans rat , Parturtion
Citation
Gomez-Lopez, N., Tanaka, S., Zaeem, Z., Metz, G.A.S., & Olson, D. M. (2013). Maternal circulating leukocytes display early chemotactic responsiveness during late gestation. BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth, 13(Suppl): 58. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2393/13/S1/S8