Division of Immunology, Regional Medical Research Centre (Indian Council of Medical Research), Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Parasitology. 2013 Apr;140(5):598-603. doi: 10.1017/S0031182012002144. Epub 2013 Jan 24.
Maternal filarial infection influences the risk of acquiring infection and development of immunity in children. Here we have analysed the blood samples of 60 mothers (24 infected and 36 uninfected) and their corresponding cord bloods to assess the impact of maternal infection on the anti-sheath antibodies and cytokine production in neonates born from them. About 69·4% of non-infected mothers and their cord bloods showed the presence of anti-sheath antibodies, while only 16·6% of the cord bloods from infected mothers were positive for it. The IL-10 level was significantly high in cord bloods of infected mothers compared with non-infected mothers. At the same time the IL-10 level was also observed to be remarkably high in cord bloods of both infected and non-infected mothers negative for anti-sheath antibody. In contrast, IFN-γ levels were significantly high in cord bloods of non-infected mothers compared with infected mothers and the increment was prominent in cord bloods of both infected and non-infected mothers positive for anti-sheath antibody. The study reveals that the presence or absence of anti-sheath antibodies in association with cytokines skews the filarial specific immunity to either Th1 or Th2 responses in neonates. This may affect the natural history of filarial infection in early childhood.
母体丝虫感染影响儿童感染和获得免疫的风险。在这里，我们分析了 60 位母亲（24 位感染和 36 位未感染）及其相应脐带血的血液样本，以评估母体感染对新生儿抗鞘抗体和细胞因子产生的影响。约 69.4%的未感染母亲及其脐带血存在抗鞘抗体，而感染母亲的脐带血中只有 16.6%呈阳性。与未感染母亲相比，感染母亲的脐带血中 IL-10 水平显著升高。同时，在抗鞘抗体阴性的感染和未感染母亲的脐带血中，也观察到 IL-10 水平显著升高。相比之下，与感染母亲相比，未感染母亲的脐带血中 IFN-γ 水平显著升高，而在抗鞘抗体阳性的感染和未感染母亲的脐带血中，这种升高更为明显。该研究表明，抗鞘抗体的存在与否与细胞因子一起，使新生儿的丝虫特异性免疫向 Th1 或 Th2 反应倾斜。这可能会影响儿童早期丝虫感染的自然史。
