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Contractile Activity of Human Decidual Stromal Cells. II. Effect of Interleukin-10

Unidad de Inmunología (M.K., O.B., R.M.-F., I.T., A.C.A.-M., E.G.O.), Instituto de Biopatología y Medicina Regenerativa, Hospital Universitario "San Cecilio" Universidad de Granada; and Instituto de Parasitología y Biomedicina (F.M.), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 18012 Granada, Spain

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Enrique G. Olivares, Unidad de Inmunología, Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Granada, 18012 Granada, Spain. E-mail: engarcia{at}ugr.es.

Context: Human decidual stromal cells (DSC) are myofibroblast-like cells that express -smooth muscle (-SM) actin, a protein associated with cell contractility. Several lines of experimental evidence in humans and mice show that antiinflammatory cytokines favor normal pregnancy, whereas Th1 and inflammatory cytokines play a role in abortion. We previously demonstrated that IL-2, a Th1 cytokine, increased the contractility of human DSC.

Objective: We studied the effect of the antiinflammatory cytokines IL-10 and IL-4 on the contractility of DSC from first-trimester pregnancy.

Setting and Patients: We studied 10 healthy women who underwent elective vaginal termination of first-trimester pregnancy at Clínica El Sur, Málaga, and Clínica Ginegranada, Granada.

Main Outcome Measure(s): After isolation of DSC, cell contractility was measured with the collagen gel contraction assay. -SM actin was detected with Western blotting and immunofluorescence.

Results: We found that IL-10, but not IL-4, increased the volume of the collagen gel matrixes in which the cytokine-treated DSC were cultured, showing that IL-10 decreased DSC contractility. By Western blotting we demonstrated that this effect was not related to an alteration in the synthesis of -SM actin. Nevertheless, we observed by immunofluorescence microscopy that DSC treated with IL-10 exhibited stress fibers with a lower content of -SM actin than untreated control DSC.

Conclusions: IL-10 relaxes DSC by reducing the incorporation of -SM actin into their stress fibers. This relaxing activity may be of relevance for the maintenance of pregnancy.

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