Maternal Cytokine Profiles during Pregnancy Predict Asthma in Children of Mothers without Asthma.

Little is known about whether maternal immune status during pregnancy influences asthma development in the child. We measured cytokine production in supernatants from mitogen-stimulated peripheral blood immune cells collected during and after pregnancy from the mothers of children enrolled in the Tucson Infant Immune Study, a nonselected birth cohort. Physician-diagnosed active asthma in children through age 9 and a history of asthma in their mothers were assessed through questionnaires.

Epigenome-wide analysis links SMAD3 methylation at birth to asthma in children of asthmatic mothers.

Background: The timing and mechanisms of asthma inception remain imprecisely defined. Although epigenetic mechanisms likely contribute to asthma pathogenesis, little is known about their role in asthma inception.

Objective: We sought to assess whether the trajectory to asthma begins already at birth and whether epigenetic mechanisms, specifically DNA methylation, contribute to asthma inception.

Perinatal tumor necrosis factor-α production, influenced by maternal pregnancy weight gain, predicts childhood asthma.

Rationale: Innate immune responses marked by increases in tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α have been associated with asthma but whether such alterations are evident before symptoms is not yet clear.

Objectives: To determine if prevalence of childhood asthma or asthma-related traits is predicted by perinatal innate immune status and if maternal factors related to pregnancy influence asthma prevalence and innate immune status.

Methods: In the Tucson Infant Immune Study (a nonselected birth cohort), presence of eczema and wheezing in the child's first year and physician-diagnosed asthma through age 9 and asthma in the parents was obtained from parent-completed questionnaires.

Predictors of neonatal production of IFN-γ and relation to later wheeze.

Supernatant IFN-γ levels from mitogen-stimulated cord blood mononuclear cells were inversely associated with wheeze through age 2, but only among boys. This relation was not due to other factors associated with cord IFN-γ production.

Adaptive cytokine production in early life differentially predicts total IgE levels and asthma through age 5 years.

Background: Although it has been postulated that allergic disease is associated with a predominance of T(H)2 cells, whether IgE levels and asthma might differ in their relation to early-life cytokine production is not known.

Objective: We sought to assess the relationship between first-year adaptive immune cytokine production with asthma and total IgE levels through age 5 years in a nonselected birth cohort.

Methods: Mitogen (concanavalin A/phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate)-stimulated IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and IFN-γ levels were measured in supernatants from cord blood mononuclear cells and PBMCs at birth, 3 months, and 12 months.