title: Leukocyte counts and lymphocyte subsets in relation to pregnancy and HIV infection in Malawian women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated leukocyte and lymphocyte subsets in HIV-infected or HIV-uninfected, pregnant or non-pregnant Malawian women to explore whether HIV infection and pregnancy may act synergistically to impair cellular immunity.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited 54 pregnant and 48 non-pregnant HIV-uninfected women and 24 pregnant and 20 non-pregnant HIV-infected Malawian women. We compared peripheral blood leukocyte and lymphocyte subsets between women in the four groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parturient HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected women had more neutrophils (each P<.0001), but fewer lymphocytes (P<.0001; P=.0014) than non-pregnant women. Both groups had fewer total T cells (P<.0001; P=.002) and CD8+T cells (P<.0001; P=.014) than non-pregnant women. HIV-uninfected parturient women had fewer CD4+and γδ T cells, B and NK cells (each P<.0001) than non-pregnant women. Lymphocyte subset percentages were not affected by pregnancy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Malawian women at parturition have an increased total white cell count due to neutrophilia and an HIV-unrelated pan-lymphopenia.
authors.affiliation: Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi.|Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi.|Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Wilson L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9386-9239
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Mandala
authors.affiliation: Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi.|Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Esther N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Gondwe
authors.affiliation: Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi.|Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Malcolm E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Molyneux
authors.affiliation: Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi.|Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Jenny M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: MacLennan
authors.affiliation: Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi.|The Jenner Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.|Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medicine and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Calman A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: MacLennan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006678:HIV / Q000276:immunology*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*; D008295:Malawi; D008875:Middle Aged; D036801:Parturition; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000276:immunology*; D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta / Q000378:metabolism; D018805:Sepsis / Q000276:immunology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta
keywords: HIV; leukocytes; lymphocytes; parturition; pregnancy; sepsis