Lymphocyte subpopulations among pregnant women in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria

Objective: To determine the peripheral blood CD3 and CD8 T-lymphocytes subpopulation\udin healthy pregnant women in our environment. Methods: Pregnant women attending the\udantenatal care clinic (ANC) of the Central Hospital, Agbor , Nigeria, who gave informed consent\udwere recruited for the study. Blood samples (10 mL) was collected by venipuncture from 121\udhealthy pregnant women (aged 17-47 years; mean 28.5暲0.43). Tweenty four non-pregnant healthy\udwomen (aged 18-30years; mean 21.12暲0.64) were enrolled as control. CD3+ and CD8+ counts\udwere determined with the Partec flow cytometer. Results: The mean CD3+ count for pregnant\udwomen was 1311.10暲71.50 毺 /L when compared to the controls which was 9.67暲0.99 毺 /L. This was\udstatistically significant(P<0.005). The mean CD8+ count for pregnant women was 340.91暲18.53 毺 /\udL as against the 583.58暲 47.30 毺 /L (P>0.005). Primigravidas had a higher CD3+ mean count than\udmultiparas while mean CD8+ count was higher in multiparas than in primigravidas. Similarly, the\udmean CD3+ count was significantly different between all the trimesters with the highest count\udof 1, 353.23暲43.90 毺 /L in the first trimester as compared to the 9.67暲0.99 毺 /L in the control.\udMean CD3+ was highly significant in pregnant women with history of previous abortions while\udthe CD8+ cells were not. Conclusions: The results suggest the need for routine determination\udof T lymphocyte subsets apart from CD4 in pregnant women attending ANC clinic to prevent any\udpossible immunological /pregnancy disorder during the period of pregnancy