Vitamin D3 induces the expression of membrane progesterone receptors (mPRs) on naive CD4+ T lymphocyte cells in women of reproductive age

Abstract

Objective: Vitamin D3 and progesterone (P4) both belong to steroid hormones. These hormones have effects on the function of each other in different ways. The immunomodulatory activity of vitamin D3 and P4 and their role in inducing maternal tolerance for fetus have been shown in various studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of vitamin D3 on the expression of membrane progesterone receptors (mPRs) on CD4⁺ T cells.

Materials and methods: Naive CD4⁺ T cells were isolated from peripheral blood of 38 healthy women of childbearing age. After stimulating by anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 monoclonal antibodies (mAb), these cells were exposed to either various concentrations of vitamin D3 or no exposure at all in a culture medium at 37 °C for 3 days. In the final stage, the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of mPRα and mPRβ were evaluated using polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies and several gating strategies on CD4⁺ T cells.

Results: Vitamin D3 significantly increased the expression of mPR α and mPR β on the surface of CD4⁺ T cells (p ≤ 0.05).

Conclusion: The present study demonstrated the potential effect of vitamin D3 on increasing the expression of P4 receptors on CD4⁺ T cells. This study shows a new aspect of correlation between vitamin D3 and P4 that may influence P4 performance. Therefore, our findings suggest that the appropriate level of this vitamin may affect the optimum P4 immunomodulatory activity during pregnancy.

Keywords: Progesterone; Vitamin D3; membrane progesterone receptors.