The Effects of Maternal Smoking on Pregnancy and Offspring: Possible Role for EGF?

ABSTRACT: Cigarette smoke exposure during pregnancy and lactation is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Here, we investigated the effects of maternal smoke exposure on pregnancy and offspring immunity and explored whether, epidermal growth factor (EGF), an important growth-promoting factor in human colostrum and milk, might be a possible missing link in maternal smoke exposure and changes in infants' immune responses. Pregnant BALB/c mice were exposed to either cigarette smoke or air during gestation and lactation, and effects on pulmonary inflammation in dams and immune responses in offspring were examined. Maternal smoke exposure increased airway hyperresponsiveness and accumulation of inflammatory cells in the lungs of pregnant dams compared to non-pregnant dams. The E-cadherin protein e

SUBMITTER: Janbazacyabar H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8415274 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature