No association of natural killer cell number and function in peripheral blood with overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome in a cohort of young women.

Aim: To reexamine the associations of NK cell number and function in the peripheral blood with overweight/obesity and the metabolic syndrome in a large, well-phenotyped human cohort.

Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of 273 women in the PPSDiab Study; measurement of absolute and relative number of NK cells in peripheral blood, and of functional parameters CD69 positivity and cytotoxicity against K562 cells; group comparison of NK cell characteristics between lean, overweight, and obese participants, as well as metabolic syndrome scores of 0, 1, 2, and ≥3; Spearman correlation analyses to clinical parameters related to the metabolic syndrome.

Results: We found no differences in NK cell number and function between lean, overweight, and obese women (relative NK cell number (median (Q1-Q3), [%]) 5.