Effects of maternal ethanol consumption on hematopoietic cells in the rat fetal liver.

During development, there are many factors to be considered in studying the efficacy of the hematopoietic system to provide the immune system with adequate numbers of functional cells within the immune repertoire. Hematopoietic cells must be able to develop, proliferate, and emigrate from the hematopoietic fetal liver to other tissues of the body, such as the thymus and bone marrow. There is evidence that ethanol consumption causes immune deficiencies in adults and that maternal ethanol consumption causes immune deficiencies in children, both with correlative effects on cells and cytokinetic regulators.

Effects on T-cell maturation and proliferation induced by lactational transfer of cyclosporine to nursing pups.

Background: Pregnancy after allotransplantations is becoming a more common occurrence, and the immunosuppressant of choice is cyclosporine (CsA) for these patients. Consequently, the effect of CsA on prenatal and postnatal immune development and function in the infant is an increasingly important clinical issue. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential problems of maternal CsA exposure on neonatal T-cell maturation and proliferation after lactational transfer of CsA in an animal model.