MATERNAL STRESS CAUSES ALTERATIONS IN NEONATAL IMMUNE RESPONSE

ALDIRICO MARÍA DE LOS ÁNGELES; RATTAY GUIDO; PERRONE SIBILIA MATÍAS DAMIÁN; SOTO ARIADNA SOLEDAD; MORETTA ROSALÍA; GOLDMAN ALEJANDRA; FENOY IGNACIO MARTÍN

Congreso; reunión anual SAI LXVII; 2019

RATIONALE: We have shown that maternal stress during pregnancy results in an increase of litter susceptibility to develop allergic lung inflammation. In this work, we aimed to study the mechanisms involved in this phenomenon. METHODS: Pregnant BALB/c mice were subjected to restraint stress on days 15th and 17th of pregnancy. On day 5 after birth, lymphoproliferation was evaluated in pup?s splenocytes from stressed dams by 3 H-thymidine incorporation. We also performed co-culture of pups splenocytes with purified CD4 + from DO11.10 mice along with OVA to measure IL-5, IL-4 and IFN-ƴ levels by ELISA. The remaining pups were sensitized intraperitoneally with OVA/Alum. At 0, 3, 6 and 18 hours after i.p. injection, we assessed cytokine levels in peritoneal lavage fluid by ELISA. Negative control group included pups from non-stress dams subjected to each of the protocols. RESULTS: Splenocytes from Stress group showed higher proliferation levels compared to splenocytes from Control group(p<0.01). Co-culture of splenocytes from Stress group with purified DO11.10 CD4 + cells and OVA presented higher IL-5 levels and lower IFN-ƴ levels compared to co-culture of splenocytes from Control group(p<0.01). Stress and Control groups presented similar levels of IL-4 and IL-5 at 0, 3, 6 and 18 hs after ip. However, pups from stressed dams presented significantly diminished levels ofIFN-ƴ compared to pups from non-stressed dams(p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results show that maternal stress during pregnancy results in an alteration of the immune system causing a different response during the first encounter with the allergen.