Increased Neutrophil Numbers Account for Leukocyto

[caryn]

...The total leukocyte count was significantly increased in women with severe PE compared with women with mild PE and normal pregnant controls: 10.66 +/- 3.70 ( P < 0.0001) versus 9.47 +/- 2.59 and 8.55 +/- 1.93 (1 x 10 (3)/muL), respectively. The increased total leukocyte count was mainly due to the increase in neutrophil numbers: 8.05 +/- 4.01 (severe; P < 0.0001) versus 6.69 +/- 2.23 (mild) and 5.90 +/- 1.79 (controls), respectively. The total neutrophil count was further increased 48 hours after delivery in the group with severe PE. No statistical differences for monocyte and lymphocyte counts were observed between normal and PE groups...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19452432

Wow. That's (statistically) *huge* -- P < 0.0001 means that there's less than a 1 in 10,000 chance that they got these results by accident. So, yet another study saying that severe PE patients have pissed-off neutrophils, which means that our adaptive immune systems are activated to respond to a foreign invader...

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[atvlady]

Very interesting. I wonder if that is why my numbers on those 2 were elevated/high plus my WBC was elevated/high as well when I was 7 weeks 6 days pregnant. Extremley interesting. I wonder if there would be a "sequence" that your blood count numbers go through and add in the physical symptoms as well that would show pre-e creeping up or your body trying to get rid of the *parasite* aka fetus.

[catherine]

I think that I would be inclined to interpret these results as evidence of a significant and acute inflammatory response. Neutrophils function as important innate effector cells. Thus they become activated in response to non-specific, pro-inflammatory molecules such as parts of viruses or bacteria. They bind them, they ingest and degrade them and then they die. The lifespan of these cells is very short, they have a half life of about 24 hours. Leukocytes more closely associated with adaptive responses are T-cells, or B-cells which make antibody.

[caryn]

Thanks for that, Catherine. I think I was thinking of T-regs. :-)

So yeah, *not* an adaptive response -- an innate response (an inflammatory one) -- because Catherine would know!