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- Björk, Emma, 1977-
(författare)
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Immunosuppressive mechanisms in endometriosis : a focus on the role of exosomes
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Endometriosis is defined as the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterine cavity. It has been suggested that the aberrant immunological mechanisms that cause dysfunction of immune cells and mediators are involved in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. There is substantial evidence of downregulated NK cell cytotoxicity and changes in inflammatory mediators such as cytokines in endometriosis. This research aimed to elucidate the immunosuppressive mechanisms in endometriosis, focusing on NK cells, the role of cytokines, and exosomes derived from endometriotic tissue.Cytokines are small peptides/proteins used for intercellular communication, and regulate immune-effector functions in health and disease. In Paper I, real-time RT-qPCR and a set of primers and probes for 11 cytokines were used defining cytotoxic Th1, humoral Th2, regulatory Tr1/Th3, and inflammatory cytokine profiles. Cytokine mRNA expression in endometriotic tissue was compared with endometrium, and systemically with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from women with endometriosis and healthy controls. In addition, immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal antibodies was performed to investigate T-regulatory cells in endometriotic lesions. A downregulation of mRNA for cytokines that mediate cytotoxicity and antibody response was found in the endometriotic lesions. At the same time, there was an upregulation of inflammatory and T-regulatory cytokines in the endometriotic lesions, suggesting enhanced local inflammation and priming of an adaptive regulatory response. Consistent with these findings, T-regulatory cells were abundant in the endometriotic lesions. These findings suggest that the ectopic implantation seen in endometriosis may be a consequence of increased inflammation and priming of adaptive T regulatory cells, resulting in impaired cytotoxicity and enhanced immune suppression. Exosomes are nanometer-sized extracellular vesicles of endosomal origin; they are produced by most cells in the body, convey intercellular communication and participate in both normal and pathological processes. Paper II show that endometriotic lesions produce high amounts of exosomes. The exosomes expressed on their surfaces the NKG2D ligands MICA/B and ULBP1-3 and the proapoptotic molecules FasL and TRAIL. These molecules are known as immunosuppressive signatures. Functional experiments were performed to show that these exosomes can downregulate the main activating NK receptor NKG2D on CTL and NK cells, reduce the killing ability of PBMC from healthy donors, and induce apoptosis of activated lymphocytes through the FasL/Fas pathway. The production and secretion of exosomes from the endometriotic tissue may be further enhanced by the vigorous local inflammation at ectopic sites. The results show that endometriotic lesions secrete immunosuppressive exosomes that inhibit cytotoxicity and promote apoptosis of activated immune cells. The exosomes form a “protective shield” around the endometriotic tissue thus promoting their survival.NK cells are cytotoxic cells of the innate immune system. Human NK cells can be divided into two subsets: CD56+bright and CD56+dim. The CD56+dim subset is more naturally cytotoxic, whereas the CD56+bright subset produces more cytokines, but has low natural cytotoxicity. The majority (>90%) of circulating NK cells are CD56+dim, whereas very few (0-10 %) are CD56+bright. In Paper III a higher amount of CD56+bright cells in serum was observed in one third of endometriosis patients compared to healthy controls. The amount of these cells was normalized after treatment with surgery, with or without medical treatment. Untreated patients had a lower expression of NKG2D receptors on their NK cells and CTLs compared to treated patients and healthy controls, which could be due to endometriotic exosomes carrying the NKG2D ligands that downregulate the receptor. Thus, surgery might have a beneficial effect on cytotoxic NK-cell function in endometriosis.Endometriosis is considered a benign disease; however it has many features in common with tumors, and shares multiple microenvironmental hallmarks with cancer, including angiogenesis, immune dysregulation, inflammation, invasion, and metastasis. Paper II shows that endometriotic tissue secretes immunosuppressive exosomes. In Paper IV, exosomes in the peripheral blood of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients, and the impairment of the NKG2D receptor-ligand system in vivo before and after surgery, were studied. The serum exosomes isolated from the EOC patients carried the NKG2D ligands MICA/B and ULBP1-3. In functional experiments, the EOC exosomes downregulated the expression of the NKG2D receptor, and subdued NKG2D-mediated cytotoxicity in NK cells from healthy donors in a similar manner to the endometriotic exosomes studied in Paper II. In Paper IV, surgery of the primary EOC tumor had a beneficial effect, alleviating the exosome-mediated suppression of NKG2D-mediated cytotoxicity. Thus, exosome-mediated immunosuppression is revealed as a common mechanism of action for immune escape in endometriosis and cancer. The results presented in this thesis provide novel and important insights into the function of the immune system in endometriosis, and give new explanations for why ectopic endometrial tissue persists and proliferates outside the uterine cavity. Furthermore, the immunosuppression in the microenvironment of endometriosis, which has many similarities with the local tumor microenvironment (TME), was investigated with a focus on the role of endometriotic exosomes. Taken together, this thesis contributes to understanding of the pathogenesis of endometriosis, and might be useful in identifying biomarkers for endometriosis and developing new immunomodulatory therapies.
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