Immunology neonates

In this paper, I examine disputes over recent claims that male circumcision reduces HIV risk to suggest a complicated relationship between risk individualization and categorization. Whereas randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted in sub-Saharan Africa appear to have provided key evidence for the World Health Organization's endorsement of male circumcision as an HIV prevention strategy, RCTs alone did not provide evidence for the underlying causal mechanism. For that, medical authorities have turned to histo-immunological studies of the foreskin's biomolecular vulnerability to HIV, thus molecularizing risk...

OBJECTIVES: To determine the therapeutic effect and protective mechanism of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) on newborn rats with hypoxia ischemic brain damage (HIBD). METHODS: Umbilical cord (3-4 cm) was collected from a healthy male infant for preparation of hUC-MSCs using explants technique. The hUC-MSCs were cultured and labeled with BrdU. The differentiation function of MSCs was identified. Healthy SPF grade neonatal SD rats were randomly divided into sham (n =30), HIBD (n =36) and hUC-MSCs treated HIBD (n =32) groups...

Immunoglobulin Y (IgY) is the predominant antibody found in hen's (Gallus domesticus) egg yolk. This antibody, developed against several microorganisms in hen egg yolk, has been successfully used as an alternative to immunoglobulins from mammals for use in immunodiagnostics and immunotherapy. Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (E.coli) F4 is the main etiological agent associated with swine neonatal diarrhea, and it causes notable economic losses in swine production. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between humoral immune response and the activation of gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) in laying hens intramuscularly immunized with E...

BACKGROUND: When feeding preterm infants, donor milk is preferred if the mother's own milk is unavailable. Pasteurization may have detrimental effects on bioactivity, but more information is needed about its effects on the immunological compounds. Research aim: This work has two main aims: evaluate the antibody profile of colostrum and study the quantitative variations in the antibodies' level and specific reactivity after undergoing Holder pasteurization. The authors focused on immunoregulatory components of colostrum (antidietary antibodies and TGF-β2) in the neonatal gut...

BACKGROUND: Shiga toxin (Stx) producing Escherichia coli (E. coli) (STEC) is the most frequent cause of diarrhoea-positive haemolytic uraemic syndrome (D + HUS) in humans. In 2011, a huge outbreak with an STEC O104:H4 strain in Germany highlighted the limited possibilities for causative treatment of this syndrome. The responsible STEC strain was found to combine Stx production with adherence mechanisms normally found in enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC). Pathotypes of E. coli evolve and can exhibit different adhesion mechanisms...

Oxidative stress (OS) is a common pathogenic factor involved in the onset of several diseases in humans, from immunologic disorders to malignancy, being a serious public health problem. In perinatal period, OS has been associated with adverse outcome of pregnancy and neonatal diseases. Dangerous effects of OS are mediated by increased production of free radicals (FRs) following various mechanisms, such as hypoxia, ischemia reperfusion, hyperoxia, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, Fenton chemistry, and prostaglandin metabolism...

BACKGROUND: Foeto-maternal haemorrhage (FMH), a gestational event that occurs before or during delivery, consists of a loss of foetal blood into the maternal circulation. FMH occurs more frequently during the third trimester or labour both in normal and complicated pregnancies. In the case of alloimmunisation, the maternal immunological response and the severity of the resulting foetal or neonatal disease depend on the amount of foetal blood that passes into the maternal circulation. The aim of this study was to determine FMH in the third trimester and at term of pregnancy and to evaluate the role of clinical and ultrasound markers in the prediction of FMH...

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a re-emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus that has recently caused extensive outbreaks in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Given its association with Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults and neurological and ocular malformities in neonates, ZIKV has become a pathogen of significant public health concern worldwide. ZIKV shares a considerable degree of genetic identity and structural homology with other flaviviruses, including dengue virus (DENV). In particular, the surface glycoprotein envelope (E), which is involved in viral fusion and entry and is therefore a chief target for neutralizing antibody responses, contains regions that are highly conserved between the two viruses...

Green fluorescent protein is widely used in biological studies including parabiosis models for visualization of cellular structures and cells. However, the growing number of the data is available regarding immunogenicity of this protein, which can interfere with its use in in vivo experiments. In this study, we attempted to induce neonatal immunological tolerance to GFP-labeled karyocytes by intraperitoneal injections of B6.GFP mouse splenocytes to newborn C57/B6 mice. GFP(+) skin graft integrity was evaluated under UV light at 6weeks after skin grafting...

Infections are a leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality. The outstandingly high susceptibility to infections early in life is mainly attributable to the compromised state of the neonatal immune system. One important difference to the adult immune system is a bias towards T helper (Th) 2-responses in newborns. However, mechanisms regulating neonatal T-cell responses are yet incompletely understood. Granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (GR-MDSC) are myeloid cells with a granulocytic phenotype that suppress various functions of other immune cells and accumulate under physiological conditions during pregnancy in maternal and foetal blood...

The high risk of neonatal death from sepsis is thought to result from impaired responses by innate immune cells; however, the clinical observation of hyperinflammatory courses of neonatal sepsis contradicts this concept. Using transcriptomic, epigenetic and immunological approaches, we demonstrated that high amounts of the perinatal alarmins S100A8 and S100A9 specifically altered MyD88-dependent proinflammatory gene programs. S100 programming prevented hyperinflammatory responses without impairing pathogen defense...

After more than a century of active research, the notion that the human fetal environment is sterile and that the neonate's microbiome is acquired during and after birth was an accepted dogma. However, recent studies using molecular techniques suggest bacterial communities in the placenta, amniotic fluid, and meconium from healthy pregnancies. These findings have led many scientists to challenge the "sterile womb paradigm" and propose that microbiome acquisition instead begins in utero, an idea that would fundamentally change our understanding of gut microbiota acquisition and its role in human development...

Neonatal sepsis is the cause of substantial morbidity and mortality. Precise estimates of neonatal sepsis burden vary by setting. Differing estimates of disease burden have been reported from high-income countries compared with reports from low-income and middle-income countries. The clinical manifestations range from subclinical infection to severe manifestations of focal or systemic disease. The source of the pathogen might be attributed to an in-utero infection, acquisition from maternal flora, or postnatal acquisition from the hospital or community...

The intrauterine environment was long considered sterile. However, several infectious threats are already present during fetal life. This review focuses on the postnatal immunological consequences of prenatal exposure to microorganisms and related inflammatory stimuli. Both the innate and adaptive immune systems of the fetus and neonate are immature, which makes them highly susceptible to infections. There is good evidence that prenatal infections are a primary cause of preterm births. Additionally, the association between antenatal inflammation and adverse neonatal outcomes has been well established...

Coxsackievirus A10 (CVA10) is one of the major pathogens associated with hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). CVA10 infection can cause herpangina and viral pneumonia, which can be complicated by severe neurological sequelae. Morbidity and mortality of CVA10-associated HFMD has been increasing in recent years, particularly in the pan-Pacific region. There are limited studies however on the pathogenesis and immunology of CVA10-associated HFMD infections, and few antiviral drugs or vaccines have been reported...

(1) Background: We aimed to examine if 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) was related to the peripheral immunological and inflammatory signature both at birth, and in newly diagnosed patients with childhood type 1 diabetes (T1D) and their healthy controls; (2) Methods: The birth cohort consisted of 470 patients and 500 healthy controls. Dried blood samples were collected from the neonates in the period 1981-1999. The newly diagnosed cohort consisted of 460 patients and 453 siblings. Serum samples were collected in the period 1997-2005...

The CD103(+) subset of lung-migratory dendritic cells (DCs) plays an important role in the generation of CD8(+) T cell responses following respiratory infection. Here, we demonstrate that the dependence on CD103(+) DCs for stimulation of RSV-specific T cells is both epitope and age-dependent. CD103(+) DCs in neonatal mice develop two phenotypically and functionally distinct populations following respiratory infection. Neonatal CD103(+) DCs expressing low levels of CD103 (CD103lo DCs) and other lineage and maturation markers including costimulatory molecules are phenotypically immature and functionally limited...

OBJECTIVES: Breast milk is a complex bioactive fluid that varies across numerous maternal and environmental conditions. While breastfeeding is known to impact neonatal gut microbiome, the milk components responsible for this effect are not well-characterized. Given the wide range of immunological activity breast milk cytokines engage in, we investigated three essential breast milk cytokines and their association with early life gut microbiota. METHODS: A total of 52 maternal-child pairs were drawn from a racially diverse birth cohort based in Detroit, Michigan...

Hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn is a common consideration in newborn medicine, especially among the jaundiced. Maternal breastmilk provides numerous benefits to the infant, including nutrition and immunologic factors. Here, we present an infant who received three intrauterine transfusions for anemia secondary to anti-K1 (Kell), anti-C, and anti-e antibodies and whose maternal breastmilk tested positive for anti-Kell antibodies. The infant required another transfusion at 4 weeks of life for anemia...

From epidemiological studies and studies done evaluating microbiomes in infants, there is a strong signal that the infants born by elective cesarean section (C-section) develop microbiota that differs from those babies born by vaginal delivery. Epidemiological studies show increased odds ratios for the development of immunological disorders such as type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, asthma, allergic diseases as well as metabolic diseases such as obesity in babies born by C-section. These are interesting associations, and if supported by additional studies that rigorously control for confounding factors, they will have major public health implications...