The
immunity of pregnant women can be affected by the gender of the baby, say
scientists.
They
found that women carrying female foetuses showed a heightened inflammatory
response.
Researchers
from The Ohio State University in the U.S. followed 80 pregnant women
through
the course of their pregnancy to find out if they exhibited different levels of
immune
markers
called cytokines based on the gender of the foetus.
Analyses
were conducted on the level of cytokines in the blood and levels produced by a
sample
of immune cells that were exposed to bacteria in the lab.
“While
women didn’t exhibit differences in blood cytokine levels based on foetal sex,
we did
find
that the immune cells of women carrying female foetuses produced more
proinflammatory
cytokines
when exposed to bacteria,” said Amanda Mitchell, a postdoctoral
researcher.
“This means that women carrying female foetuses exhibited a heightened
inflammatory
response when their immune system was challenged,” said Ms. Mitchell.
Inflammation
is a critical part of the immune response involved in wound healing and
responses
to viruses, bacteria and chronic illnesses. However, excessive inflammation is
stressful
to the body.
The
heightened inflammation observed among women carrying female foetuses could
play a
role
in why mothers-to-be tend to experience exacerbated symptoms of some medical
conditions,
including asthma, when carrying a female foetus.
The
study was published in the journal Brain, Behaviour and Immunity.
Source: The
Hindu
No comments:
Post a Comment