Deficiencies in VIP levels during the feto-maternal dialogue conditioned the pregnancy outcome

L. FRACCAROLI, L. LAROCCA, M. CALAFAT, V. ROCA, C. PÉREZ LEIRÓS AND R. RAMHORST

Orlando, USA

Congreso; 29th Annual meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Immunology; 2009

American Society of reproductive Immunology

Successful embryo implantation occurs followed by a local pro-inflammatory and Th1 response, subsequently controlled by a Th2 response. VIP (vasoactive intestinal peptide) favors tolerance to fetal antigens displaying anti-inflammatory effects and promoting tolerogenic/Th2 responses. Since a potential exacerbated pro/inflammatory/Th1 response could implicate into immunological abortion failures, we investigated whether VIP could control the initial pro-inflammatory response in patients with recurrent spontaneous abortions (RSA). We tested VIP effects on maternal PBMCs (from RSA and fertile women) after interaction with immortalized trophoblast cells (Swan 71) as representative model of feto-maternal dialogue; and we performed co-cultures of maternal and paternal PBMCs to test VIP effects on the systemic maternal alloresponse. After the interaction with trophoblast cells, RSA patients displayed low frequency of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ within maternal PBMCs and low levels of TGF (p