Association of peripheral blood dendritic cells with recurrent pregnancy loss: a case-controlled study.

PROBLEM: Dendritic cells (DCs) have been reported to play an important role in pregnancy. However, the role of DCs in recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) has not been investigated well.

METHOD OF STUDY: Forty-three women affected by RPL and 16 fertile controls were recruited from June 2013 to December 2014. The peripheral blood DCs subsets, including myeloid DCs (mDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs), the levels (%) of CD80(+) , CD86(+) , and CD200(+) DCs were analyzed using flow cytometry.

RESULTS: The levels of total DCs, mDCs, and CD86(+) DCs were significantly higher (all P<.05); however, the level of CD200(+) DCs in the RPL group was significantly lower than that of the control group (P<.05). The logistical regression analyses showed that the elevated level of mDCs was significantly associated with RPL after adjustment for age (OR: 1.14, 95% CI, 1.01-1.29, P<.05).

CONCLUSION: The elevated level of mDCs was significantly associated with RPL, which might lead to the intervention of targeted immunosuppression in women with RPL.