SELECTED ARTICLES FROM THE RECENT LITERATURE 2005

11/3/05

Effect of maternal allergy status on neonatal immune responses to microbial stimuli

Summary
Background - Maternal atopic status is recognized as a risk factor for development of atopy in her progeny. But how is this predisposition mediated?

Findings - Amoudruz et al of Stockholm Univ in Sweden compared the in vitro activity of cord blood mononuclear leukocytes obtained from newborns of atopic vs non-atopic mothers. They found decreased in vitro IL-6 release from the cells of the progeny of the atopic mothers after incubation with peptidoglycan, a microbial stimulus. However, the expression of Toll-like receptor types 2 and 4 (to which microbial stimuli bind) were not significantly different in the cord blood mononuclear cells of the 2 groups of infants.

Reference
JACI 2005;115:1304-1310

Editor's Comments
The clinical relevance of these interesting findings remains to be determined. Of note is a finding in a recent study that enteric microbial pathogens appear to be less well tolerated in the colon of atopic children possibly because stimuli from such microbes do not react as well with atopic cells.

 

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