1. Maternal-fetal immune responses in pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2.
- Author
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Garcia-Flores, Valeria, Romero, Roberto, Xu, Yi, Theis, Kevin R., Arenas-Hernandez, Marcia, Miller, Derek, Peyvandipour, Azam, Bhatti, Gaurav, Galaz, Jose, Gershater, Meyer, Levenson, Dustyn, Pusod, Errile, Tao, Li, Kracht, David, Florova, Violetta, Leng, Yaozhu, Motomura, Kenichiro, Para, Robert, Faucett, Megan, and Hsu, Chaur-Dong
- Subjects
MATERNAL-fetal exchange ,PREGNANT women ,CORD blood ,IMMUNE response ,SARS-CoV-2 ,VIRUS diseases ,STROMAL cells - Abstract
Pregnant women represent a high-risk population for severe/critical COVID-19 and mortality. However, the maternal-fetal immune responses initiated by SARS-CoV-2 infection, and whether this virus is detectable in the placenta, are still under investigation. Here we show that SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy primarily induces unique inflammatory responses at the maternal-fetal interface, which are largely governed by maternal T cells and fetal stromal cells. SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is also associated with humoral and cellular immune responses in the maternal blood, as well as with a mild cytokine response in the neonatal circulation (i.e., umbilical cord blood), without compromising the T-cell repertoire or initiating IgM responses. Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 is not detected in the placental tissues, nor is the sterility of the placenta compromised by maternal viral infection. This study provides insight into the maternal-fetal immune responses triggered by SARS-CoV-2 and emphasizes the rarity of placental infection. As pregnant women are considered vulnerable to SARSCoV-2 infection, it is important to investigate the actual risks involved. The authors show here that, while a T cell-dominant inflammatory response is observed at the maternal-foetal interface, the virus remains undetectable in the placenta but triggers specific immune responses in the neonatal (umbilical cord blood) circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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