In vivo expression of recombinant pregnancy-specific glycoprotein 1a induces alternative activation of monocytes and enhances Th2-type immune response.

It has been proposed that pregnancy-specific factors could be responsible for shift the balance of cytokine profiles during maternal immune response from Th1-type reactivity into a "less-damaging" Th2-type reactivity. In the present work, we investigated the in vivo function of human pregnancy-specific glycoprotein (PSG)1a, the major variant of PSG polypeptides released into the circulation during pregnancy, on the modulation of the innate and adaptive immune response. For this, BALB/c mice were injected with a vaccinia virus-based vector harboring the human PSG1a cDNA (Vac-PSG1a) 4 days before immunization with ovalbumin (OVA) in complete Freund's adjuvant, and the early specific T cell response against OVA was evaluated 8 days post-immunization. We also studied the activation status of spleen and peritoneal monocytes/macrophages (Mo) populations from Vac-PSG1a-treated mice, and explored whether PSG1a-targeted Mo could affect the Th-type commitment by investigating their impact on the differentiation of naive T cells. Our data show that the treatment with Vac-PSG1a is able to induce a state of alternative activation on Mo. Furthermore, the generation of the immune response in the context of these alternatively activated antigen-presenting cells may shift T cell differentiation to Th2-type immunity which is more compatible with a successful pregnancy.

Human pregnancy-specific glycoprotein 1a (PSG1a) induces alternative activation in human and mouse monocytes and suppresses the accessory cell-dependent T cell proliferation.

It has been proposed that pregnancy-specific factors induce the suppression of a specific arm of the maternal response accompanied by activation of the nonspecific, innate immune system. The aim of this study was to determine whether pregnancy-specific glycoprotein 1a (PSG1a), the major variant of PSG polypeptides, is able to modulate the monocyte/macrophage (Mo) metabolism to regulate T cell activation and proliferation. Using the recombinant form of this glycoprotein (rec-PSG1a), expressed in mammalian cells with a vaccinia-based expression vector, we have demonstrated that human PSG1a induces arginase activity in peripheral blood human Mo and human and murine Mo cell lines. In addition, rec-PSG1a is able to induce alternative activation because it up-regulates the arginase activity and inhibits the nitric oxide production in Mo activated by lipopolysaccharides. We also observed that rec-PSG1a is an important accessory cells-dependent T cell suppressor factor that causes partial growth arrest at the S/G2/M phase of the cell cycle. Additionally, an impaired T cell proliferative response induced by mitogens and specific antigen was observed in BALB/c mice upon in vivo expression of PSG1a. Our results suggest that PSG1a function contributes to the immunomodulation during pregnancy, having opposite effects on maternal innate and adaptative systems.