Department of Anthropology, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2010 Apr 7;277(1684):1129-37. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1795. Epub 2009 Dec 9.
Ecological factors are important determinants of the development and function of anti-pathogen defences. Inflammation is a central part of innate immunity, but the developmental factors that shape the regulation of inflammation are not known. We test the hypothesis that microbial exposures in infancy are associated with high sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) in adulthood using prospective data from a birth cohort in the Philippines (n = 1461). Lower birth weight was associated with increased CRP, consistent with a role for inflammation in the widely documented inverse relationship between birth weight and adult cardiovascular diseases. In addition, higher levels of microbial exposure in infancy were associated with lower CRP. These associations were independent of socioeconomic status, measures of current body fat and other health behaviours. We conclude that measures of microbial exposure and nutrition during the pre-natal and early post-natal periods are important predictors of CRP concentration in young adulthood. We speculate that the development of anti-inflammatory regulatory networks in response to early microbial exposure represents plasticity in the development of anti-pathogen defences, and that this process may help explain the low CRP concentrations in this population.
生态因素是抗病原体防御系统发展和功能的重要决定因素。炎症是先天免疫的核心部分，但塑造炎症调控的发育因素尚不清楚。我们使用菲律宾出生队列的前瞻性数据（n=1461）检验了这样一个假设，即婴儿期的微生物暴露与成年后高敏 C 反应蛋白（CRP）有关。较低的出生体重与 CRP 升高有关，这与炎症在出生体重与成人心血管疾病之间广泛存在的反比关系中起作用的观点一致。此外，婴儿期微生物暴露水平较高与 CRP 降低有关。这些关联与社会经济地位、当前体脂测量值和其他健康行为无关。我们的结论是，产前和产后早期的微生物暴露和营养测量是年轻人 CRP 浓度的重要预测因素。我们推测，针对早期微生物暴露的抗炎调节网络的发展代表了抗病原体防御系统发展的可塑性，并且该过程可能有助于解释该人群中 CRP 浓度较低的原因。
