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- Rindsjö, Erika
(author)
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Intrauterine immunology in allergy and infection
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Pregnancy is interesting from an immunological point of view. The maternal immune system has to tolerate the fetus and at the same time also protect against infection. The placenta is not a completely tight barrier: in fact, cells can pass through in both directions. Allergy often starts early in life and intrauterine factors have been proposed to play a role in development of allergy. The overall aim of this thesis was to study the innate response to infection and the presence, origin and specificity of IgE antibodies in the placenta, and furthermore the effect of maternal allergy on lymphocytes in the newborn child. Histological chorioamnionitis most often corresponds to an intrauterine bacterial infection and in this thesis, we have investigated different factors in the placenta in relation to chorioamnionitis. In the first study, we investigated TLR2 expression. We demonstrated that expression of TLR2 was lower in placentas with chorioamnionitis compared to healthy placentas. This suggests that TLR2 could be involved in the response to pathogens in the placenta. In the second study, we analyzed the presence of IgE in the placenta in relation to two different intrauterine infections; chorioamnionitis and malaria. There was no effect of either type of infection on the presence of IgE antibodies. In the third study we investigated the amount of macrophages (Hofbauer cells) in the placenta in relation to chorioamnionitis. There was a decrease of the macrophages in infected placentas compared to controls. The intriguing finding of IgE antibodies in the villous stroma of placenta made us curious about their origin and specificity. In paper IV, we established a method to elute placental IgE. By comparing the specificity profile of placental IgE with that of maternal plasma and cord blood, we could conclude that placental IgE most probably is of maternal origin. We also demonstrated that it could be allergen specific. In the last paper of this thesis, neonatal immune phenotype and response in relation to maternal allergy was investigated. We could not see an effect of maternal allergic disease on the phenotype of neonatal T- or B cells, proliferation or presence of regulatory T cells in CBMC in response to allergen stimulation. This indicates that the intrauterine environment of allergic mothers does not affect the neonatal response to allergens or the phenotype of neonatal lymphocytes. The factors studied could, however, still have a role in relation to later allergy development in the children. Taken together, the work presented here contributes to the understanding of the role of the placenta and the intrauterine environment in infection and allergy. The work herein demonstrates that chorioamnionitis affects the TLR2 expression and presence of CD68+ Hofbauer cells in the placenta. It also indicates that placental IgE originates from the mother and that it can be allergen specific. Furthermore, we could not detect any difference in phenotype of T and B cells or the immune response to allergen stimulation in neonates of allergic mothers as compared to neonates of non-allergic mothers.
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| 3. |
- Vinnars, Marie-Therese N., et al.
(author)
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The Number of CD68+ (Hofbauer) Cells is Decreased in Placentas with Chorioamnionitis and with Advancing Gestational Age
- 2010
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In: Pediatric and Developmental Pathology. - : Sage Publications. - 1093-5266 .- 1615-5742. ; 13:4, s. 300-304
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Hofbauer cells are placental macrophages found in chorionic villous stroma; they express classic monocyte/macrophage markers, such as CD68. Little is known about their participation in placental disease and immunologic interactions at the placental interface. The aim of this study was to quantify the amount of Hofbauer cells in placentas complicated, or not, by chorioamnionitis and in placentas from different gestational ages. Fifty-eight 2nd-and 3rd-trimester placentas with the histologic diagnosis of acute chorioamnionitis were compared with 42 control placentas matched according to gestational age. Immunohistochemistry evaluation was performed with a monoclonal anti-CD68 antibody. Five areas of each placenta were photographed and 5 investigators, with the help of a computerized image analysis program, independently evaluated the number of CD68+ cells. Our results showed that there are significantly fewer CD68+ cells per villous area in placentas diagnosed with chorioamnionitis than in those of controls (P < 0.001). Moreover, there was a significant overall decrease in the number of these cells in 3rd as compared with 2nd trimester placentas (P = 0.02), as well as in placentas from term as compared to preterm pregnancies (P = 0.004). Our data indicate that CD68+ Hofbauer cells may be involved in placental infection and possibly associated with the developmental maturation of the fetoplacental unit.
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