[Natural cytotoxicity of CD16+ lymphocytes in women with selected states of pregnancy pathology].

The natural cytotoxic activity of lymphocytes CD16+ (NK) was studied in healthy nonpregnant and pregnant women and in patients with threatened spontaneous abortion, preterm delivery and preeclampsia. We have shown no differences in the proportion of NK cells between all studied patients and controls. The possibility of previous contact with embryonic antigens was excluded since no differences were noted between cytotoxic activity of NK cells obtained from multiparous women and those who never gave a birth. The natural cytotoxic activity of NK cells from patients with threatened abortion or preterm delivery was found to be significantly higher (p < 0.01) than from cells of healthy pregnant women. However in preeclamptic patients activity of NK cells was very low as comparing to pregnant women and more than three lower than in nonpregnant ones. This indicates that though the amount of NK cells does not different between normal and pathological pregnancies, there is marked difference in their biological activity.