Open Collections

Jan-Abu, Sia Cecilia

University of British Columbia

The prevalence of allergic diseases including food allergies and asthma are increasing worldwide and substantial evidence suggests that this is driven, at least in part, by changes in Western lifestyle and early life environmental factors. The complex interaction between genetics and environment from gestation to the first year of life are believed to drive perturbations in immune development and education which significantly affect allergic diseases susceptibility and development. In mice vancomycin exposure from gestation up to the first 3 weeks after birth induces enhanced systemic allergy later in life. This systemic allergy mouse model was used to study allergy development in the perinatal period by interrogating T cell and plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC) signatures in 7-, 10- and 14-day old mice. By flow cytometry we found that the frequency of CD4⁺ T cells and type 2 CD8⁺ T cells (Tc2 cells) were temporally altered in the bone marrow of naive vancomycin exposed mice which has implications for allergy development since normal hematopoiesis can be impacted by this T cell activity. pDC activation state in vancomycin primed mice was also significantly different. Furthermore, serum IgE analysis suggests that by day 14 after birth, allergy prone immune development is ensuing. Overall, this study provides insight into specific cell subsets that may drive pro-allergic immune development in early life, and it provides a specific timeline in which such critical changes are occurring.

Text

2024-01-19

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87325

Biomedical Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/