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Prebiotic Supplementation During Pregnancy Modifies the Gut Microbiota and Increases Metabolites in Amniotic Fluid, Driving a Tolerogenic Environment In UteroThe gut microbiota is influenced by environmental factors such as food. Maternal diet during pregnancy modifies the gut microbiota composition and function, leading to the production of specific compounds that are transferred to the fetus and enhance the ontogeny and maturation of the immune system. Prebiotics are fermented by gut bacteria, leading to the release of short-chain fatty acids that can specifically interact with the immune system, inducing a switch toward tolerogenic populations and therefore conferring health benefits.
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Protection against neonatal respiratory viral infection via maternal treatment during pregnancy with the benign immune training agent OM-85Incomplete maturation of immune regulatory functions at birth is antecedent to the heightened risk for severe respiratory infections during infancy. Our forerunner animal model studies demonstrated that maternal treatment with the microbial-derived immune training agent OM-85 during pregnancy promotes accelerated postnatal maturation of mechanisms that regulate inflammatory processes in the offspring airways.
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OMIP 076: High-dimensional immunophenotyping of murine T-cell, B-cell, and antibody secreting cell subsetsThere is now considerable evidence demonstrating that both prenatal and postnatal exposure to particular classes of microbial stimuli can provide beneficial signals during early life immune development, resulting in the protection against future inflammatory disease.
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Metabolic dysfunction induced by a high-fat diet modulates hematopoietic stem and myeloid progenitor cells in brown adipose tissue of miceBrown adipose tissue (BAT) may be an important metabolic regulator of whole-body glucose. While important roles have been ascribed to macrophages in regulating metabolic functions in BAT, little is known of the roles of other immune cells subsets, particularly dendritic cells (DCs). Eating a high-fat diet may compromise the development of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs)-which give rise to DCs-in bone marrow, with less known of its effects in BAT. We have previously demonstrated that ongoing exposure to low-dose ultraviolet radiation (UVR) significantly reduced the 'whitening' effect of eating a high-fat diet upon interscapular (i) BAT of mice.
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Oestrogen amplifies pre-existing atopy-associated Th2 bias in an experimental asthma modelThe role of oestrogen in experimental atopic asthma, and guide future research on sex-related variations in atopic asthma susceptibility/intensity
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A method for the generation of large numbers of dendritic cells from CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells from cord bloodNeonatal dendritic cells generated form CD34+ cord blood progenitors have a higher inflammatory potential when exposed to viral than bacterial related stimuli
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Tumor necrosis factor α induces α1B-adrenergic receptor expression in keratinocytesOur results suggest that inflammatory cytokines released during injury stimulate α1-AR expression in keratinocytes
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Immunoinflammatory responses to febrile lower respiratory infections in infants display uniquely complex/intense transcriptomic profilesthe association between infant LRTI and risk for persistent wheeze/asthma in this cohort is generally stronger for fLRTIs than for other infection categories
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Quantification of Serum Ovalbumin-specific Immunoglobulin E Titre via in vivo Passive Cutaneous Anaphylaxis AssayWe describe herein a highly reproducible in vivo passive cutaneous anaphylaxis assay using Sprague Dawley rats for the quantification of ovalbumin-specific IgE
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Transplacental immune modulation with a bacterial-derived agent protects against allergic airway inflammationThese data provide proof of concept supporting the rationale for developing transplacental immune reprogramming approaches for primary disease prevention