Chronic schistosomiasis during pregnancy epigenetically reprograms T-cell differentiation in offspring of infected mothers

Schistosomiasis is a nontransplacental helminth infection. Chronic infection during pregnancy suppresses allergic airway responses in offspring. We addressed the question whether in utero exposure to chronic schistosome infection (Reg phase) in mice affects B-cell and T-cell development. Therefore, we focused our analyses on T-cell differentiation capacity induced by epigenetic changes in promoter regions of signature cytokines in offspring. Here, we show that naive T cells from offspring of schistosome infected female mice had a strong capacity to differentiate into TH 1 cells, whereas TH 2 differentiation was impaired. In accordance, reduced levels of histone acetylation of the IL-4 promoter regions were observed in naive T cells. To conclude, our mouse model revealed distinct epigenetic changes within the naive T-cell compartment affecting TH 2 and TH 1 cell differentiation in offspring of mothers with chronic helminth infection. These findings could eventually help understand how helminths alter T-cell driven immune responses induced by allergens, bacterial or viral infections, as well as vaccines.

• Klar, K.
• Perchermeier, S.
• Bhattacharjee, S.
• Harb, H.
• Adler, T.
• Istvanffy, R.
• Loffredo-Verde, E.
• R. A. Oostendorp R
• Renz, H.
• Prazeres da Costa, C.