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 naïve T cells from offspring of schistosome infected female mice had a strong capacity to differentiate into T H 1 cells, whereas T H 2 differentiation was impaired. In accordance, reduced levels of histone acetylation of the IL-4 promoter regions were observed in naïve T cells. To conclude, our mouse model revealed distinct epigenetic changes within the naïve T-cell compartment affecting T H 2 and T H 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.Keywords: Epigenetic histone modification r In utero programming r Maternal helminth infection r Schistosomiasis r T-cell differentiation Additional supporting information may be found in the online version of this article at the publisher's web-site Over the last century and in strong contrast to developing countries, a continuous rise in allergic diseases, such as asthma, is observed in industrialized countries [1]. It is currently discussed whether helminthic parasites contribute to the low prevalence of allergic diseases in parasite endemic areas [2] due to their well-known ability to suppress bystander immune responses * These authors contributed equally to this work.
Purpose of Review Cardiopulmonary bypass for on-pump cardiac surgery induces a systemic inflammation that may contribute to postoperative major complications. To reduce this inflammatory response in patients undergoing heart surgery, the perioperative use of anti-inflammatory corticosteroids has long been recommended to improve clinical outcomes. However, the efficacy and safety of steroids remain still unclear. Recent Findings We reviewed recent published literature, including the large clinical trials DECS and SIRS and the two meta-analysis by Dvirnik et al. (2018) and Ng et al. (2020), on mortality and major postoperative complications, such as myocardial complications, atrial fibrillation, stroke, pulmonary adverse events, length of ICU and hospital stay, renal failure, and infection. Summary The perioperative application of corticosteroids did not improve mortality rates beyond standard care or other secondary outcomes, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, renal failure, and infection. The observed increased risk of myocardial damage in patients receiving corticosteroids in the SIRS trial is mainly related to the author-defined CK-MB threshold as indicator for early myocardial injury. Interestingly, the use of steroids may have some beneficial effects on secondary outcomes: they significantly decreased the risk of respiratory failure and pneumonia and shortened the length of ICU and hospital stay, but the mechanism involved in pulmonary injury is multifactorial and it is difficult to evaluate this result. Patients receiving steroids did not have a decreased incidence of atrial fibrillation shown by the two large trials unlike some previous small sample size trials have demonstrated.
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