The role of regulatory T cell (Treg) subsets in gestational diabetes mellitus.

Physiological changes during normal pregnancy are characterized by an inflammatory immune response and insulin resistance. Therefore, we hypothesize that gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) may be caused by an inappropriate adaption of the maternal immune system to pregnancy. In this study we examined the role of regulatory T cell (Treg) differentiation for the development of GDM during pregnancy. We used six-colour flow cytometric analysis to demonstrate that the total CD4(+) CD127(low+/-) CD25(+) forkhead box protein 3 (FoxP3(+)) T(reg) pool consists of four different T(reg) subsets: naive CD45RA(+) T(regs), HLA-DR(-) CD45RA(-) memory T(regs) (DR(-) T(regs)) and the highly differentiated …