Morphological and functional changes in the spleen of mice offspring at different stages of postnatal development after a single immunostimulating impact on maternal organism in early pregnancy.

We studied the effect of short-term activation of the maternal immune system with T-cell mitogen concanavalin A at the early terms of pregnancy on the postnatal development of the spleen in the offspring. It was found that single immunostimulatory exposure prior to the formation of the fetal immune system delays the postnatal development of the spleen until the beginning of puberty and impairs the formation of splenic lymphatic nodules with the predominant development of germinal centers as well as increases the number of mast cells in this organ.