TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex and urbanicity contribute to variation in lymphocyte distribution across Ugandan populations
AU - Naluyima, Prossy
AU - Eller, Leigh Anne
AU - Ouma, Benson J.
AU - Kyabaggu, Denis
AU - Kataaha, Peter
AU - Guwatudde, David
AU - Kibuuka, Hannah
AU - Wabwire-Mangen, Fred
AU - Robb, Merlin L.
AU - Michael, Nelson L.
AU - Souza, Mark S.
AU - Sandberg, Johan K.
AU - Eller, Michael A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a cooperative agreement (W81XWH-11-2-0174) between the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Additional support was provided by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Stockholm County Council, Karolinska Institutet, and the Division of Intramural Research, NIAID, NIH. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. The authors would like to thank the study volunteers for their participation and invaluable support of this research in Uganda, Warren B. Sateren for his help on the statistical analysis, and the MUWRP laboratory staff for their dedicated work on this. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the positions of the U.S. Army or the Department of Defence.
PY - 2016/1/5
Y1 - 2016/1/5
N2 - Management of patient care and interpretation of research data require evaluation of laboratory results in the context of reference data from populations with known health status to adequately diagnose disease or make a physiological assessment. Few studies have addressed the diversity of lymphocyte subsets in rural and urban Ugandan populations. Here, 663 healthy blood bank donors from semi-urban centers of Kampala consented to participate in a study to define lymphocyte reference ranges. Whole blood immunophenotyping was performed to determine the frequency and absolute counts of T, B, and NK cells using clinical flow cytometry. Results from blood bank donors were compared to a rural cohort from the district of Kayunga and more urban clinical trial participants from the capital city, Kampala. Relationships between hematological and lymphocyte parameters were also explored. In the semi-urban blood donors, females were significantly different from males in all parameters except the frequency of CD8 T and B cells. Females had higher absolute counts of CD4 T, CD8 T and B cells, whereas males had higher NK cell counts. NK cell frequency and counts were significantly higher in semi-urban blood donors, regardless of sex, compared to more urban study participants. CD8 T cell frequency and counts were significantly higher in the blood donors compared to the rural participants, irrespective of sex. Interestingly, basophil counts were positively associated with overall T cell counts. These findings suggest that both sex and level of cohort urbanicity may influence lymphocyte subset distributions in Ugandans.
AB - Management of patient care and interpretation of research data require evaluation of laboratory results in the context of reference data from populations with known health status to adequately diagnose disease or make a physiological assessment. Few studies have addressed the diversity of lymphocyte subsets in rural and urban Ugandan populations. Here, 663 healthy blood bank donors from semi-urban centers of Kampala consented to participate in a study to define lymphocyte reference ranges. Whole blood immunophenotyping was performed to determine the frequency and absolute counts of T, B, and NK cells using clinical flow cytometry. Results from blood bank donors were compared to a rural cohort from the district of Kayunga and more urban clinical trial participants from the capital city, Kampala. Relationships between hematological and lymphocyte parameters were also explored. In the semi-urban blood donors, females were significantly different from males in all parameters except the frequency of CD8 T and B cells. Females had higher absolute counts of CD4 T, CD8 T and B cells, whereas males had higher NK cell counts. NK cell frequency and counts were significantly higher in semi-urban blood donors, regardless of sex, compared to more urban study participants. CD8 T cell frequency and counts were significantly higher in the blood donors compared to the rural participants, irrespective of sex. Interestingly, basophil counts were positively associated with overall T cell counts. These findings suggest that both sex and level of cohort urbanicity may influence lymphocyte subset distributions in Ugandans.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84954141234&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0146196
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0146196
M3 - Article
C2 - 26730706
AN - SCOPUS:84954141234
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 11
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 1
M1 - e0146196
ER -