Breastfeeding modulates neonatal innate immune responses: a prospective birth cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Neonatal Toll-like receptor (TLR) responses are biased toward Th2-polarizing responses at birth and rapidly mature toward more balanced responses during the first month of life. Postnatal TLR maturation may be guided by environmental exposure. AIMS: To determine the environmental determinants of neonatal TLR function. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective birth cohort study was performed in 291 healthy term neonates. Mode of delivery, breastfeeding, birth month, siblings, pets and parental smoking were analyzed in relation to neonatal innate immune parameters at the age of 1 month. Whole blood concentrations of innate immune cells were measured by flow cytometry. In vitro TLR-mediated cytokine production was determined by ELISA. RESULTS: Breastfeeding was the major determinant of neonatal innate immunity, associated with 5 (31%) of neonatal innate immune parameters, of which the association with TLR7-mediated IL-10 production was most significant (76 pg/ml in breastfed neonates vs. 293 pg/ml in formula-fed neonates, p = 0.001). Of innate immune variables, TLR3-mediated IL-12p70 production was highly associated with environmental exposures (pets, breastfeeding and mode of delivery), whereas TLR9-mediated cytokine responses were not associated with any environmental factor. CONCLUSION: Neonatal innate immune responses are differentially modulated by environmental exposure in the first month of life. The protective effect of breastfeeding against subsequent infections and atopy might be explained by its innate immune modulatory effects in the first month of life.

Osteogenic differentiation as a result of BMP-2 plasmid DNA based gene therapy in vitro and in vivo.

Bone regeneration is one of the major focus points in the field of regenerative medicine. A well-known stimulus of bone formation is bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), which has already been extensively used in clinical applications. We investigated the possibility of achieving osteogenic differentiation both in vitro and in vivo as a result of prolonged presence of BMP-2 using plasmid DNA-based gene therapy. By delivering BMP-2 cDNA in an alginate hydrogel, a versatile formulation is developed. High transfection efficiencies of up to 95% were obtained in both human multipotent stromal cells (MSCs) and MG-63 cells using naked DNA in vitro. Over a period of 5 weeks, an increasing amount of biologically active BMP-2 was released from the cells and remained present in the gel. In vivo, transfected cells were found after both two and six weeks implantation in naked mice, even in groups without seeded cells, thus indicating in vivo transfection of endogenous cells. The protein levels were effective in inducing osteogenic differentiation in vitro, as seen by elevated alkaline phosphatase (ALP) production and in vivo, as demonstrated by the production of collagen I and osteocalcin in a mineralised alginate matrix. We conclude that BMP-2 cDNA incorporated in alginate hydrogel appears to be a promising new strategy for minimal-invasive delivery of growth factors in bone regeneration.

Skewed pattern of Toll-like receptor 4-mediated cytokine production in human neonatal blood: low LPS-induced IL-12p70 and high IL-10 persist throughout the first month of life.

Newborns are highly susceptible to infectious diseases, which may be due to impaired immune responses. This study aims to characterize the ontogeny of neonatal TLR-based innate immunity during the first month of life. Cellularity and Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonist-induced cytokine production were compared between cord blood obtained from healthy neonates born after uncomplicated gestation and delivery (n=18), neonatal venous blood obtained at the age of one month (n=96), and adult venous blood (n=17). Cord blood TLR agonist-induced production of the Th1-polarizing cytokines IL-12p70 and IFN-alpha was generally impaired, but for TLR3, 7 and 9 agonists, rapidly increased to adult levels during the first month of life. In contrast, TLR4 demonstrated a slower maturation, with low LPS-induced IL-12p70 production and high IL-10 production up until the age of one month. Polarization in neonatal cytokine responses to LPS could contribute to neonatal susceptibility to severe bacterial infection.

Ablation of the retinoblastoma gene family deregulates G(1) control causing immortalization and increased cell turnover under growth-restricting conditions.

The retinoblastoma suppressor pRB belongs to the family of so-called pocket proteins, which also includes p107 and p130. These proteins may functionally overlap in cell cycle control and tumor suppression. We have generated an isogenic set of embryonic stem (ES) cell lines carrying single or compound loss-of-function mutations in the Rb gene family, including a cell line completely devoid of all three pocket proteins. None of the knockout combinations affected the growth characteristics of ES cells; however, concomitant ablation of all three pocket proteins strongly impaired their differentiation capacity. For the generated genotypes, primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) also were obtained. While inactivation of Rb alone did not alleviate the senescence response of MEFs, pRB/p107-deficient MEFs, after having adapted to in vitro culturing, continued to proliferate at modest rate. Additional ablation of p130 rendered MEFs completely insensitive to senescence-inducing signals and strongly increased their proliferation rate. Although triple-knockout MEFs retained anchorage dependence, they lacked proper G(1) control and showed increased cell turnover under growth-inhibiting conditions.