Immune function in intrauterine growth retardation

T Cells Development Is Different between Thymus from Normal and Intrauterine Growth Restricted Pig Fetus at Different Gestational Stage

“…The flow cytometry results demonstrated that some T cell subsets in the thymus of normal fetuses were higher than in IUGR piglets, possibly explaining the discrepancy in quantity or proportion of T cell subsets, lower levels of immunity and higher mortality rates after birth (Ferguson et al, 1974; Manerikar et al, 1976; Mussi-Pinhata et al, 1993; Neumann et al, 1998; Rosenberg, 2008; Lin et al, 2009). …”

“…The percentage of T-cell subsets to total lymphocytes gives an account of whether IUGR piglets possess a standard ability of T cell development compared to normal piglets (Neumann et al, 1998). In the present study, the percentage of CD3 + CD4 + CD8 + cells in IUGR fetuses at day 60 was lower than in normal fetuses, however, at later periods of gestation, this difference was no longer apparent.…”

“…Pig exhibits the most severe naturally occurring IUGR among domestic mammals with 15 to 20% of newborns have a birth weight <1.1 kg in comparison with a normal birth weight of 1.4 kg (Wu et al, 2006; Wang et al, 2008). Humans express diminished thymus and spleen size, the smaller number of lymphocyte counts, reduced cell-mediated immunity and thymopoietin production (Ferguson et al, 1974; Chandra, 1975; Manerikar et al, 1976; Mussi-Pinhata et al, 1993; Neumann et al, 1998; McDade et al, 2001). …”

Impaired intestinal mucosal immunity is associated with the imbalance of T lymphocyte sub-populations in intrauterine growth-restricted neonatal piglets

“…years (Widdowson, 1971;Cailhol et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2008;Neumann et al, 1998;Dong et al, 2014;Zhong et al, 2012a) A study has reported that IUGR is associated with lower numbers of T regs (CD3 + , CD4 + , CD25 high , and FoxP3 high ) and fewer functional T regs compared to term-appropriate-weight infants (Mukhopadhyay et al, 2014), and a low maternal CD4 percentage has been reported to be independently associated with IUGR (Cailhol et al, 2009). T lymphocytes are believed to be the main regulators of the mucosal immune response.…”