Aberrant NK cell profile in gestational diabetes mellitus with fetal growth restriction

Yujing Xiong; Yazhen Wang; Mengqi Wu; Shuqiang Chen; Hui Lei; Hui Mu; Haikun Yu; Yongli Hou; Kang Tang; Xutao Chen; Jie Dong; Xiaohong Wang; Lihua Chen

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2024.1346231

Aberrant NK cell profile in gestational diabetes mellitus with fetal growth restriction

Front Immunol. 2024 Feb 5:15:1346231. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1346231. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Yujing Xiong^#^{1

2}, Yazhen Wang^#¹, Mengqi Wu^#³, Shuqiang Chen², Hui Lei², Hui Mu², Haikun Yu², Yongli Hou¹, Kang Tang¹, Xutao Chen¹, Jie Dong², Xiaohong Wang², Lihua Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Immunology, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
² Reproductive Medical Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tangdu Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
³ School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a gestational disorder characterized by hyperglycemia, that can lead to dysfunction of diverse cells in the body, especially the immune cells. It has been reported that immune cells, specifically natural killer (NK) cells, play a crucial role in normal pregnancy. However, it remains unknown how hyperglycemia affects NK cell dysfunction thus participates in the development of GDM. In this experiment, GDM mice were induced by an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) after pregnancy and it has been found that the intrauterine growth restriction occurred in mice with STZ-induced GDM, accompanied by the changed proportion and function of NK cells. The percentage of cytotoxic CD27^-CD11b⁺ NK cells was significantly increased, while the proportion of nourished CD27^-CD11b^- NK cells was significantly reduced in the decidua of GDM mice. Likewise, the same trend appeared in the peripheral blood NK cell subsets of GDM patients. What's more, after intrauterine reinfusion of NK cells to GDM mice, the fetal growth restriction was alleviated and the proportion of NK cells was restored. Our findings provide a theoretical and experimental basis for further exploring the pathogenesis of GDM.

Keywords: cell type; fetal growth restriction; gestational diabetes mellitus; intrauterine infusion; natural killer cell.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental*
Diabetes, Gestational*
Female
Fetal Growth Retardation / etiology
Humans
Hyperglycemia*
Killer Cells, Natural
Mice
Pregnancy

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82371748, 82271734).