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Variations in chemokine receptor and cytokine expression during pregnancy in multiple sclerosis patients

Unitat de Neuroimmunologia Clínica, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron (HUVH), Barcelona, Spain

M Comabella

Unitat de Neuroimmunologia Clínica, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron (HUVH), Barcelona, Spain, mcomabel{at}vhebron.net

M Tintoré

Unitat de Neuroimmunologia Clínica, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron (HUVH), Barcelona, Spain

J Sastre-Garriga

Unitat de Neuroimmunologia Clínica, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron (HUVH), Barcelona, Spain

X Montalban

Unitat de Neuroimmunologia Clínica, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron (HUVH), Barcelona, Spain

Although several T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases have shown a reduction in their clinical disease activity during pregnancy, the underlying mechanisms by which pregnancy causes such a beneficial effect on the disease activity are not fully understood. We performed a longitudinal study of chemokine receptors (CCR3, CCR4, CCR5, CXCR3, CXCR4) by flow cytometry in different subsets of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) during pregnancy in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The levels of cytokine mRNA expression (IL-10, IFN-g) were also investigated by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The expression of CXCR3 by CD4 and CD8 positive T cells was decreased to a statistically significant extent during the second trimester of pregnancy. CD4 and CD8 T cells showed a statistically significant increase in the expression of CXCR4 during the third trimester of pregnancy. At the mRNA expression level, an increase in the IL-10/IFN-g ratio was observed during pregnancy, especially during the third trimester. These findings indicate immunomodulatory effects of pregnancy on the expression of chemokine receptors and cytokines, which may be related to changes in the clinical disease activity of T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, such as MS.

Key Words: autoimmune diseases • chemokine receptor • cytokine • multiple sclerosis • pregnancy • T cells

Multiple Sclerosis, Vol. 12, No. 4, 421-427 (2006)
DOI: 10.1191/1352458506ms1287oa


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