TY - JOUR

T1 - Maternal fatty acid desaturase genotype correlates with infant immune responses at 6 months

AU - Muc, Magdalena

AU - Kreiner-Møller, Eskil

AU - Larsen, Jeppe Madura

AU - Birch, Sune

AU - Brix, Susanne

AU - Bisgaard, Hans

AU - Lauritzen, Lotte

N1 - CURIS 2015 NEXS 322

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Breast milk long-chain PUFA (LCPUFA) have been associated with changes in early life immune responses and may modulate T-cell function in infancy. We studied the effect of maternal fatty acid desaturase (FADS) genotype and breast milk LCPUFA levels on infants' blood T-cell profiles and ex vivo-produced cytokines after anti-CD3/CD28 stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in 6-month-old infants from the Copenhagen Prospective Study of Asthma in Childhood birth cohort. LCPUFA concentrations of breast milk were assessed at 4 weeks of age, and FADS SNP were determined in both mothers and infants (n 109). In general, breast milk arachidonic acid (AA) levels were inversely correlated with the production of IL-10 (r -0·25; P=0·004), IL-17 (r -0·24; P=0·005), IL-5 (r -0·21; P=0·014) and IL-13 (r -0·17; P=0·047), whereas EPA was positively correlated with the counts of blood regulatory T-cells and cytotoxic T-cells and decreased T-helper cell counts. The minor FADS alleles were associated with lower breast milk AA and EPA, and infants of mothers carrying the minor allele of FADS SNP rs174556 had higher production of IL-10 (r -0·23; P=0·018), IL-17 (r -0·25; P=0·009) and IL-5 (r -0·21; P=0·038) from ex vivo-activated immune cells. We observed no association between T-cell distribution and maternal or infant FADS gene variants. We conclude that increased maternal LCPUFA synthesis and breast milk AA are associated with decreased levels of IL-5, IL-13 (type-2 related), IL-17 (type-17 related) and IL-10 (regulatory immune responses), but not with interferon-γ and TNF-α, which could be due to an effect of the maternal FADS variants on the offspring immune response transferred via breast milk LCPUFA.

AB - Breast milk long-chain PUFA (LCPUFA) have been associated with changes in early life immune responses and may modulate T-cell function in infancy. We studied the effect of maternal fatty acid desaturase (FADS) genotype and breast milk LCPUFA levels on infants' blood T-cell profiles and ex vivo-produced cytokines after anti-CD3/CD28 stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in 6-month-old infants from the Copenhagen Prospective Study of Asthma in Childhood birth cohort. LCPUFA concentrations of breast milk were assessed at 4 weeks of age, and FADS SNP were determined in both mothers and infants (n 109). In general, breast milk arachidonic acid (AA) levels were inversely correlated with the production of IL-10 (r -0·25; P=0·004), IL-17 (r -0·24; P=0·005), IL-5 (r -0·21; P=0·014) and IL-13 (r -0·17; P=0·047), whereas EPA was positively correlated with the counts of blood regulatory T-cells and cytotoxic T-cells and decreased T-helper cell counts. The minor FADS alleles were associated with lower breast milk AA and EPA, and infants of mothers carrying the minor allele of FADS SNP rs174556 had higher production of IL-10 (r -0·23; P=0·018), IL-17 (r -0·25; P=0·009) and IL-5 (r -0·21; P=0·038) from ex vivo-activated immune cells. We observed no association between T-cell distribution and maternal or infant FADS gene variants. We conclude that increased maternal LCPUFA synthesis and breast milk AA are associated with decreased levels of IL-5, IL-13 (type-2 related), IL-17 (type-17 related) and IL-10 (regulatory immune responses), but not with interferon-γ and TNF-α, which could be due to an effect of the maternal FADS variants on the offspring immune response transferred via breast milk LCPUFA.

U2 - 10.1017/S0007114515002561

DO - 10.1017/S0007114515002561

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26283408

VL - 114

SP - 891

EP - 898

JO - British Journal of Nutrition

JF - British Journal of Nutrition

SN - 0007-1145

IS - 6

ER -