Table 1.
Effects of Natural Killer (NK) Cell Adoptive Transfer on Circulating and Placental Cytokines in Pregnant Rats.
| Circulating Cytokines | |||||
| Cytokine (pg/mL) | Sham | RUPP | Sham+RUPP NK | RUPP+Sham NK | n/group |
| IL-6 | 138±21 | 426±56* | 338±40* | 245±56# | 8–9 |
| IL-17 | 6.8±1.6 | 30.5±4.9* | 23.8±3.7 | 45.5±8.9* | 8–10 |
| TNF-α | 30.3±5.0 | 152±16.6* | 108.7±13.6* | 115.4±17* | 10–11 |
| IFN- γ | 19.3±3.1 | 95.2±14.8* | 44.6±6.5# | 74.7±12.8* | 10–11 |
| Placental Cytokines | |||||
| Cytokine (pg/mg) | Sham | RUPP | Sham+RUPP NK | RUPP+Sham NK | n/ group |
| IL-17 | 0.63±0.24 | 4.1±0.72* | 0.57±0.22# | 5.1±0.73* | 10–12 |
| TNF-α | 36.3±4.0 | 64.3±7.2* | 46.3±4.5 | 71.7±5.4* | 9–11 |
| IFN-γ | 5.1±1.4 | 15.5±3.0* | 14.6±2.0* | 5.9±1.8# | 11–12 |
On GD14, vehicle or 5x106 RUPP NKs were infused i.v. into a subset of Sham rats and vehicle or 5x106 Sham NKs were infused i.v. into a subset of RUPP rats. On GD19, blood and placentas were collected following sacrifice and processed for further analysis. Levels of cytokines were measured in blood and placental homogenates of each group using the Bio-Plex Pro Rat Cytokine Immunoassay Kit. Placental data are normalized to total protein. All data are expressed as mean±SEM. Statistical analyses were performed using one-way ANOVA with multiple comparisons followed by Tukey’s post-hoc correction.
*
p<0.05 vs. Sham
#
p<0.05 vs RUPP.