Table 2.
Comparisons of Vaginal Histology, Immune Cell Populations, and Epithelial Adhesion Protein Between Premenopausal Participants in the Follicular and Luteal Phases Combined Versus Postmenopausal Participants at Baseline and After Topical Vaginal Estradiol Therapy
| Premenopausal cohort at baseline in FOL and LUT phases combined (n = 40 samples) | Postmenopausal cohort at baseline (n = 17 samples) | Postmenopausal cohort after 1 month of vaginal E2 cream therapy (n = 17 samples) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | p Value PRE vs. POST baseline | Mean | SD | p Value POST baseline vs. s/p E2 | p Value PRE vs. POST s/p E2 |
| Vaginal epithelium | |||||||||
| Epithelial thickness (μm) | 314.3 | 116.8 | 115.2 | 54.2 | <.01 | 276.3 | 66.9 | <.01 | .25 |
| Number of cell layers | 21.4 | 4.6 | 10.7 | 3.6 | <.01 | 18.2 | 6.2 | <.01 | .04 |
| Vaginal immune cell populations/phenotype (cells/mm2) in the epithelium | |||||||||
| CD45 | 93.2 | 37.3 | 231.1 | 116.1 | <.01 | 82.8 | 39.9 | <.01 | .42 |
| CD3 | 70.8 | 33.2 | 187.4 | 97.3 | <.01 | 63.6 | 32 | <.01 | .64 |
| HLADR | 31.2 | 16.4 | 113.6 | 46.3 | <.01 | 52.4 | 20.3 | <.01 | <.01 |
| CCR5 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | .15 | 0.1 | 0.6 | .83 | .15 |
| CD4 | 0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 2.7 | .17 | 0.6 | 1.4 | .74 | .05 |
| Estimated CD4 (CD3–CD8) | 19.0 | 18.0 | 52.0 | 37.8 | <.01 | 18.5 | 15.2 | .05 | .83 |
| CD8 | 51.8 | 25.2 | 135.4 | 75.6 | <.01 | 45.1 | 24.9 | <.01 | .60 |
| CD1a | 39.4 | 15.2 | 23.9 | 24.1 | <.01 | 31.8 | 11.8 | .15 | .10 |
| Vaginal immune cell populations/phenotype (cells/mm2) in the lamina propria | |||||||||
| CD45 | 72.5 | 42 | 79.9 | 25.3 | .12 | 103 | 38.6 | .06 | <.01 |
| CD3 | 47.8 | 32.1 | 63 | 25.1 | .01 | 80.2 | 35.1 | .13 | <.01 |
| HLADR | 26.9 | 16.2 | 48 | 16.7 | <.01 | 57.1 | 24.9 | .18 | <.01 |
| CCR5 | 3.2 | 3.7 | 1.8 | 2.4 | .22 | 2.8 | 3.7 | .41 | .74 |
| CD4 | 2 | 2.9 | 3.3 | 3.7 | .19 | 3.5 | 4.4 | .97 | .31 |
| Estimated CD4 (CD3–CD8) | 16.4 | 14.4 | 24.0 | 14.4 | .05 | 42.2 | 24.8 | .10 | <.01 |
| CD8 | 31.3 | 21.8 | 38.9 | 17.6 | .05 | 38 | 19.3 | .89 | .09 |
| CD1a | 0.9 | 2.3 | 0.4 | 1.1 | .57 | 2.8 | 4.6 | .13 | .03 |
| E-cadherin in the vaginal epithelium ( × 106 integrated optical density of positively stained area) | |||||||||
| E-cadherin | 8.8 | 3.0 | 6.8 | 2.6 | .01 | 9.9 | 2.8 | .01 | .19 |
Bold numbers indicate significant p value <0.05.
FOL, follicular; LUT, luteal; E2, estradiol; PRE, premenopausal; POST, postmenopausal.