Nouatin Odilon, Gbédandé Komi, Ibitokou Samad, Vianou Bertin, Houngbegnon Parfait, Ezinmegnon Sem, Borgella Sophie, Akplogan Carine, Cottrell Gilles, Varani Stefania, Massougbodji Achille, Moutairou Kabirou, Troye-Blomberg Marita, Deloron Philippe, Luty Adrian J F, Fievet Nadine
Centre d'Etude et de Recherche sur le Paludisme Associé à la Grossesse et à l'Enfance (CERPAGE), Faculté des Sciences de la Santé, Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin.
Département de Biochimie et de Biologie Cellulaire, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Bénin.
PLoS One. 2015 Nov 18;10(11):e0139606. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139606. eCollection 2015.
Maternal parasitoses modulate fetal immune development, manifesting as altered cellular immunological activity in cord blood that may be linked to enhanced susceptibility to infections in early life. Plasmodium falciparum typifies such infections, with distinct placental infection-related changes in cord blood exemplified by expanded populations of parasite antigen-specific regulatory T cells. Here we addressed whether such early-onset cellular immunological alterations persist through infancy. Specifically, in order to assess the potential impacts of P. falciparum infections either during pregnancy or during infancy, we quantified lymphocyte subsets in cord blood and in infants' peripheral blood during the first year of life. The principal age-related changes observed, independent of infection status, concerned decreases in the frequencies of CD4+, NKdim and NKT cells, whilst CD8+, Treg and Teff cells' frequencies increased from birth to 12 months of age. P. falciparum infections present at delivery, but not those earlier in gestation, were associated with increased frequencies of Treg and CD8+ T cells but fewer CD4+ and NKT cells during infancy, thus accentuating the observed age-related patterns. Overall, P. falciparum infections arising during infancy were associated with a reversal of the trends associated with maternal infection i.e. with more CD4+ cells, with fewer Treg and CD8+ cells. We conclude that maternal P. falciparum infection at delivery has significant and, in some cases, year-long effects on the composition of infants' peripheral blood lymphocyte populations. Those effects are superimposed on separate and independent age- as well as infant infection-related alterations that, respectively, either match or run counter to them.
母体寄生虫感染会调节胎儿的免疫发育，表现为脐带血中细胞免疫活性的改变，这可能与生命早期感染易感性增加有关。恶性疟原虫就是这类感染的典型代表，脐带血中与胎盘感染相关的明显变化表现为寄生虫抗原特异性调节性T细胞群体的扩大。在此，我们探讨了这种早期发生的细胞免疫改变在婴儿期是否持续存在。具体而言，为了评估孕期或婴儿期恶性疟原虫感染的潜在影响，我们对脐带血和婴儿出生后第一年外周血中的淋巴细胞亚群进行了定量分析。观察到的与年龄相关的主要变化，与感染状态无关，涉及CD4 +、NKdim和NKT细胞频率的下降，而CD8 +、Treg和Teff细胞的频率从出生到12个月龄增加。分娩时存在的恶性疟原虫感染，而非妊娠早期的感染，与婴儿期Treg和CD8 + T细胞频率增加但CD4 +和NKT细胞减少有关，从而加剧了观察到的与年龄相关的模式。总体而言，婴儿期发生的恶性疟原虫感染与母体感染相关趋势的逆转有关，即CD4 +细胞增多，Treg和CD8 +细胞减少。我们得出结论，分娩时母体感染恶性疟原虫对婴儿外周血淋巴细胞群体的组成有显著影响，在某些情况下，这种影响会持续一整年。这些影响叠加在分别与年龄以及婴儿感染相关的独立改变之上，这些改变要么与之匹配，要么与之相反。
