TY - JOUR
T1 - Interrelationships of interleukin-8 with interleukin-1β and neutrophils in vaginal fluid of healthy and bacterial vaginosis positive women
AU - Cauci, Sabina
AU - Guaschino, Secondo
AU - de Aloysio, Domenico
AU - Driussi, Silvia
AU - De Santo, Davide
AU - Penacchioni, Paola
AU - Quadrifoglio, Franco
PY - 2003/1/1
Y1 - 2003/1/1
N2 - Vaginal innate immunity in response to microbial perturbation is still poorly understood and could be crucial for protection from adverse outcomes. We investigated the relationship between interleukin (IL)-8, IL-1β and neutrophils in vaginal fluid obtained from 60 healthy women and 51 women who were bacterial vaginosis (BV) positive. Concentrations of IL-8 and IL-1β were highly correlated with counts of neutrophils in vaginal fluid of the entire population examined (111 subjects). Vaginal IL-1β concentrations were significantly higher (P <0.001) in BV positive women. There was no significant difference in IL-8 levels or number of neutrophils between healthy controls and BV positive women. None of the healthy controls with high neutrophil counts (≥75th percentile, 14 average count per field) had high concentrations of IL-1β (≥75th percentile, 220 pg/ml), whereas 84% of BV positive women with high neutrophil counts had high IL-1β concentrations (P <0.001). On the contrary, no difference in the percentage of subjects with elevated concentrations of IL-8 (≥75th percentile, 2842 pg/ml) was found between healthy and BV positive women with high numbers of neutrophils (55.5% of healthy versus 53% of BV positive women). Our findings show that BV causes a large increase in IL-1β concentrations which is not paralleled by an increase in IL-8 concentrations in vaginal fluid, suggesting that BV-associated factors more specifically dampen IL-8 rather than IL-1β. The lack of an increase in IL-8 may explain the absence of an increase in neutrophil numbers in most women exposed to abnormal vaginal colonization (BV).
AB - Vaginal innate immunity in response to microbial perturbation is still poorly understood and could be crucial for protection from adverse outcomes. We investigated the relationship between interleukin (IL)-8, IL-1β and neutrophils in vaginal fluid obtained from 60 healthy women and 51 women who were bacterial vaginosis (BV) positive. Concentrations of IL-8 and IL-1β were highly correlated with counts of neutrophils in vaginal fluid of the entire population examined (111 subjects). Vaginal IL-1β concentrations were significantly higher (P <0.001) in BV positive women. There was no significant difference in IL-8 levels or number of neutrophils between healthy controls and BV positive women. None of the healthy controls with high neutrophil counts (≥75th percentile, 14 average count per field) had high concentrations of IL-1β (≥75th percentile, 220 pg/ml), whereas 84% of BV positive women with high neutrophil counts had high IL-1β concentrations (P <0.001). On the contrary, no difference in the percentage of subjects with elevated concentrations of IL-8 (≥75th percentile, 2842 pg/ml) was found between healthy and BV positive women with high numbers of neutrophils (55.5% of healthy versus 53% of BV positive women). Our findings show that BV causes a large increase in IL-1β concentrations which is not paralleled by an increase in IL-8 concentrations in vaginal fluid, suggesting that BV-associated factors more specifically dampen IL-8 rather than IL-1β. The lack of an increase in IL-8 may explain the absence of an increase in neutrophil numbers in most women exposed to abnormal vaginal colonization (BV).
KW - Bacterial vaginosis
KW - Interleukin-1β
KW - Interleukin-8
KW - Mucosal innate immunity
KW - Vaginal leukocytes
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U2 - 10.1093/molehr/gag003
DO - 10.1093/molehr/gag003
M3 - Article
C2 - 12529421
AN - SCOPUS:0344406949
VL - 9
SP - 53
EP - 58
JO - Molecular Human Reproduction
JF - Molecular Human Reproduction
SN - 1360-9947
IS - 1
ER -