ICCBH2019 Invited Speaker Abstracts (1) (18 abstracts)
Vitamin D in pregnancy and offspring immunology
Catherine Hawrylowicz 1 , Eve Hornsby 1 , Charlotte Cheadle 1 , Paul Pfeffer 1 , Nancy Laranjo 2 , William Cruikshank 3 , Marina Tuzova 3 , Augusto A Litonjua 2, , Scott T Weiss 2, , Vincent J Carey 2, & George O’Connor 3
1Asthma UK Centre for Allergic Mechanisms in Asthma, School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences, College London; 2Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston; 3Pulmonary Center, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston; 4Harvard Medical School, Boston.
Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is common, and is linked to increased risk of adverse outcomes including preterm birth, preeclampsia, infection, gestational diabetes and asthma. Vitamin D possesses well-recognized immunomodulatory functions, and programming of the immune system during foetal development can influence asthma-related risk factors and health outcomes in later life. We hypothesized that influencing vitamin D status during pregnancy would impact the immune profile of the baby at birth. The effect of maternal supplementation with 4400 IU/d vitamin D3 from the end of the first trimester of pregnancy through to term on neonatal immunity was investigated using a subset of cord blood samples from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial (the Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction Trial). Cord blood samples from neonates born to mothers supplemented with 4400 IU/d (n=26) or 400 IU/d (n=25) of vitamin D3 were analysed for immune cell composition and function by flow cytometry quantitative PCR, and cytokine secretion by cytometric bead array. Higher maternal supplementation of 4400 IU/d resulted in an enhanced broad-spectrum pro-inflammatory cytokine response to TLR-ligation and mitogen stimulation, that corresponded with higher gene expression for select TLR, a trend for increased frequency of myeloid dendritic cells and a four-fold increase in IL-17A secretion following T cell receptor stimulation. Parallel in vitro studies increasingly implicate immunoregulatory pathways in the neonate that are distinct from those in adults, and emerging data on a potential role for neutrophils will be discussed. We conclude that increasing vitamin D status in the mother during pregnancy influences the immune profile of her baby. This is predicted to have a beneficial impact and reduce asthma-related risk factors, such as infection, in early life.
Disclosure: The authors declared no competing interests.
Abstract unavailable.
Article tools
My recent searches
My recently viewed abstracts
Authors
Bone Abstracts
ISSN 2052-1219 (online)
© Bioscientifica 2024 |
Privacy policy |
Cookie settings
BiosciAbstracts
Bioscientifica Abstracts is the gateway to a series of products that provide a permanent, citable record of abstracts for biomedical and life science conferences.
Find out more