Unique sensitivity to α-galactosylceramide of NKT cells in the uterus

It was previously reported that NKT cells, which are mainly present in the liver of mice, are also present in the uterus and that these uterine NKT cells are associated with abortion under overactivated conditions. In this study, we further examined their phenotypic and functional properties. In parallel with the progression of pregnancy, the number of uterine lymphocytes increased. This increase accompanied an increase in the number of TCRαβ+ T cells and NKT cells in the uterus, although the number of NKT cells decreased at late pregnancy. Approximately one-third of the TCRαβ+ cells were NKT cells at the early pregnant stage, while this ratio decreased toward late pregnancy. These uterine NKT cells were found to respond to α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) differently in comparison with liver NKT cells. In contrast to the apoptotic response of liver NKT cells on day 1 after α-GalCer injection, uterine NKT cells expanded prominently without such apoptosis. The majority of liver NKT cells were CD4+. In contrast, almost all of the uterine NKT cells were double negative CD4−8−. However, similar to liver NKT cells, uterine NKT cells used an invariant chain of Vα14Jα281 gene for TCRα. The resistance against apoptosis might be due to the high expression of bcl-2 on uterine NKT cells after α-GalCer activation. Other evidence was that macrophages which existed in the pregnant uterus carried an activation marker, CD69, and could potentially produce many cytokines by their activation. The present results suggest that uterine NKT cells and surrounding macrophages are quite different in function from those in the liver.