Changes of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets before and after operation of patients with endometriosis

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Abstract
This study was performed to elucidate whether endometriotic lesions can affect peripheral blood lymphocyte‐subsets. Changes of lymphocyte‐subsets of normal healthy women and patients with uterine myoma or endometriosis before and after operation were also examined by using two‐color assay methods. The percentage and absolute number of CD57+CD16+ cells [moderately differentiated natural killer (NK) cells] of NK cell subsets in peripheral blood from patients with endometriosis were signficantly lower than values from normal healthy women and patients with uterine myoma, while there was no difference in CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocyte‐subsets between normal healthy women and patients with uterine myoma or endometriosis. In patients with endometriosis the percentage and absolute number of CD8+CD11+ cells (suppressor T‐cells) was significantly increased after operation, while those in patients with uterine myoma did not change. On the other hand, resection of endometriotic lesions resulted in a significant decrease of the percentage of CD57+CD16+ cells (immature NK cells) and a significant increase of not only the percentage but also the absolute number of CD57+CD16+ cells (moderately differentiated NK cells), suggesting that existence of endometriotic lesions disturbs differentiation of the NK cells. Furthermore, suppressor inducer T‐cells as shown by measuring CD4+2H4+ and CD4+4B4− cells were significantly increased after operation of endometriosis. These results suggest that endometriotic lesions can affect differentiation of NK cells and such functional changes of the NK cells may be involved with progression or development of endometriosis.

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