Listeria monocytogenes cytoplasmic entry induces fetal wastage by disrupting maternal Foxp3+ regulatory T cell-sustained fetal tolerance.

ABSTRACT: Although the intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes has an established predilection for disseminated infection during pregnancy that often results in spontaneous abortion or stillbirth, the specific host-pathogen interaction that dictates these disastrous complications remain incompletely defined. Herein, we demonstrate systemic maternal Listeria infection during pregnancy fractures fetal tolerance and triggers fetal wastage in a dose-dependent fashion. Listeria was recovered from the majority of concepti after high-dose infection illustrating the potential for in utero invasion. Interestingly with reduced inocula, fetal wastage occurred without direct placental or fetal invasion, and instead paralleled reductions in maternal Foxp3(+) regulatory T cell suppressive potency with reci

SUBMITTER: Rowe JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3420962 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature