Abimiku, Alash'le

Blattner, William A

Cairo, Cristiana

Mamman, Ille

Pauza, C David

Propp, Nadia

English

PubMed

Cristiana Cairo

Nadia Propp

Ille Mamman

Alash'le Abimiku

William A Blattner

C David Pauza

Springer - Publisher Connector

Blattner William A

Abimiku Alash'le

Mamman Ille

Propp Nadia

Cairo Cristiana

Pauza C David

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Retrovirology

Immunity in Nigerian women and the effects of pregnancy and infectious disease exposure on fetal immunity

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Retrovirology
Open AccessPoster presentations
Immunity in Nigerian women and the effects of pregnancy and 
infectious disease exposure on fetal immunity
Cristiana Cairo*, Nadia Propp, Ille Mamman, Alash'le Abimiku, 
William A Blattner and C David Pauza
Address: Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
* Corresponding author    
The control of maternal immunity during pregnancy and
the impact of maternal infections on the fetal immune
system are not well characterized. We initiated studies on
pregnant women in Nigeria and their offspring, with a
goal of characterizing maternal immunity and how it
affects the developing fetus. We concentrated on – T cells,
in particular on the Vg2-Jg1.2+ subset, a lymphocyte pop-
ulation responsible for rapid and robust Th1 responses to
multiple pathogens and tumors. Otherwise healthy preg-
nant women in Nigeria (n = 22) had average Vg2-Jg1.2 fre-
quencies significantly lower than a cohort of healthy
control subjects gathered in North America and 6 of 22
(27%) women had severely depressed values. Among
HIV-infected pregnant women in Nigeria the Vg2-Jg1.2+
subset was also low, but was similar to HIV+ adults from
Baltimore. We also asked examined the – T cell receptor
repertoire in cord blood mononuclear cells from deliver-
ies to both HIV+ and HIV-neg Nigerian women. Most cord
blood populations were naïve and had very low represen-
tation of the Vg2-Jg1.2+ subset. However, 3 of 13 speci-
mens (23%) were unusual in having a – T cell receptor
repertoire that was more similar to adult values and unlike
the highly naïve cord blood cells seen in specimens from
North American or European deliveries. These data rein-
forced our previous observations from cord blood speci-
mens in the Ivory Coast, where we first noted the
appearance of unusually mature cord blood cell popula-
tions with high functional responses to – T cell antigens.
Knowing that – T cells are impacted not only by HIV, but
also by malaria and tuberculosis, we are initiating a study
to uncover possible environmental exposures during
pregnancy and how these experiences imprint on the fetal
immune system. At present, our focus is on malaria due to
the high risk for infection in Nigeria, the known devastat-
ing consequences for babies born to infected mothers,
and the interaction of HIV and malaria resulting in accel-
erated disease.
from 2006 International Meeting of The Institute of Human Virology
Baltimore, USA. 17–21 November, 2006
Published: 21 December 2006
Retrovirology 2006, 3(Suppl 1):P74 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-3-S1-P74
<supplement> <title> <p>2006 International Meeting of The Institute of Human Virology</p> </title> <note>Meeting abstracts. A single PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available <a href=" http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/files/pdf/1742-4690-3-S1-full.pdf ">here</a></note> <url>http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1742-4690-3-S1-info.pdf</url></supplement>
© 2006 Cairo et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 


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Immunity in Nigerian women and the effects of pregnancy and infectious disease exposure on fetal immunity

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