There is no doubt about the beneficial effect of breastfeeding on the newborn's immune system. It is not fully elucidated what the differences are between the colostrum/milk of healthy and allergic mothers and how beneficial breastfeeding by an allergic mother is. The gene expression of selected cytokines was tested in cells isolated from colostra of healthy and allergic mothers using quantitative real-time PCR. Allergic phenotype was evident in colostral cells of allergic mothers: gene expressions of IL-4, IL-13 and EGF were increased and those of IFN-gamma decreased in comparison with colostral cells of healthy mothers. The allergic phenotype of the colostral cells of allergic mothers supporting the bias to a Th2 type response was found. It remains a question if a small number of these cells could influence the immature newborn immune system.

Institute of Immunology and Microbiology 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Biol Neonate. 1997;71(2):69-74 PubMed

Clin Exp Allergy. 2006 May;36(5):614-8 PubMed

Cytometry. 1992;13(3):282-90 PubMed

Res Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 1996 Sep;93(3):263-87 PubMed

Pediatr Int. 2006 Dec;48(6):543-8 PubMed

Clin Exp Immunol. 2004 Oct;138(1):47-53 PubMed

Folia Microbiol (Praha). 2007;52(5):549-55 PubMed

Folia Microbiol (Praha). 2010 Sep;55(5):515-9 PubMed

Biol Neonate. 2002;82(1):34-8 PubMed

Acta Paediatr. 2000 Mar;89(3):252-8 PubMed

Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 2008 Jun 15;123(3-4):305-13 PubMed

Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2010 Sep;21(6):977-82 PubMed

Immunology. 2000 Dec;101(4):570-80 PubMed

Effect of early postnatal supplementation of newborns with probiotic strain E. coli O83:K24:H31 on allergy incidence, dendritic cells, and microbiota

Distinct characteristics of Tregs of newborns of healthy and allergic mothers

The effect of the colostral cells on gene expression of cytokines in cord blood cells