Endometrial Granulated Lymphocytes in Women Suffering Spontaneous Early Pregnancy Loss

Spontaneous abortion is the most common complication of pregnancy. Several lines of evidence indicate that immunologic effector cells may play a role in the pathogenesis of idiopathic repetitive abortions. Leukocytes form a substantial proportion of stromal cells in decidua and the endometrial granulated lymphocytes (eGL) is the predominant decidual leukocyte population in the first trimester of normal human pregnancy. To investigate the involvement of eGL population in repetitive abortion of unknown etiology, a comparative analysis was performed on first-trimester decidual tissues obtained from thirty patients with recurrent spontaneous abortion and thirty samples at therapeutic abortion. The eGL in paraffin-embedded sections of all samples were demonstrated with phloxine-tartrazine staining. The results showed the presence of many eGL that scattered individually throughout the stroma and formed some aggregates around glands and some vessels. The number of positive cells was increased in the recurrent aborted decidua compared with normal pregnancy decidua, but the difference was not significant (p>0.05).