title: Changes and clinical significance of peripheral blood helper T lymphocyte and natural killer (NK) cells in unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA) patients after abortion and successful pregnancy .
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to investigate the number changes and the clinical significance of the peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets and NK (natural killer) cells in unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA) patients before and after abortion, as well as after successful pregnancy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-nine URSA patients (URSA-abortion group), among who 22 patients were followed up until the final successful parturition (URSA-pregnancy group), 31 normal-pregnancy (NP) cases and 25 normal non-pregnancy (NNP) control cases in which the peripheral blood T lymphocytes and subsets, B cells, and NK cells were assessed flow cytometry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with the URSA-pregnancy group and the NP group, the Th cells and NK cells of the URSA-abortion group increased (p < 0.05); compared with the NNP group, the total number of T cells decreased after the first, second, and third month of the URSA abortion (p < 0.05); Th cells decreased within one to six months of the URSA abortion (p < 0.05); proportion of NK cells was significantly higher in URSA patients (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The abnormal numbers of the peripheral blood T cell subsets and NK cells were related with the occurrence of URSA.
authors: L Y
authors: LY
authors: Zhu
authors: X
authors: X
authors: Chen
authors: Z Z
authors: ZZ
authors: Xu
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Xu
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Mao
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000026:Abortion, Habitual / Q000097:blood*; D000328:Adult; D001772:Blood Cell Count / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural; D011247:Pregnancy; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory