altered frequencies of cd4^+ cd25^+ foxp3^+ and cd8^+ cd25^+ foxp3^+ regulatory t cells in preeclampsia

Regulatory t cells are of utmost importance for tolerating the fetus. in some pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, the frequency of cd4+cd25+foxp3+ regulatory t cells is altered, but there is no consistency regarding the results. besides, little is known about the frequency of cd8+cd25+foxp3+ treg cells in pregnancy complications. therefore, we aimed to investigate the frequency of both cd4+ and cd8+ regulatory t cells in the peripheral blood of women afflicted by preeclampsia. ten non-pregnant, ten healthy pregnant, and ten preeclamptic women participated in this study. four colors flow cytometry method was used to identify the frequency of the cd4+ and cd8+ regulatory t cells in the peripheral blood. results indicated that the frequencies of cd4+cd25+foxp3+ and cd8+cd25+foxp3+ cells were significantly lower in preeclamptic women compared to healthy pregnant and non- pregnant ones (p<0.05). a positive correlation was also observed between cd4+ and cd8+ regulatory t cells (r=0.532, p=0.002). moreover, cd4+ regulatory t cells negatively correlated with systolic and diastolic blood pressures (r=-0.760 and -0.753, respectively; p<0.001). cd8+ regulatory t cells also had a negative correlation with systolic (r=-0.503, p=0.001) and diastolic (r=-0.590, p=0.005) blood pressures. in conclusion, a reduction in the frequencies of both cd4+ cd25+ foxp3+ and cd8+cd25+foxp3+ regulatory t cells might be important in the pathogenesis of pre- eclampsia.