Association between Neonatal Whole Blood Iron Content and Cytokines, Adipokines, and Other Immune Response Proteins
NUTRIENTS
Authors: Thorsen, Steffen U.; Pipper, Christian B.; Ellervik, Christina; Pociot, Flemming; Kyvsgaard, Julie N.; Svensson, Jannet
Abstract
(1) Background: High iron associates with inflammation and type 1 diabetes (T1D). Iron is essential not only for neonatal development but also for infectious microorganisms. The neonatal immune system is immature, and innate immunity prevails before immunocompetence develops. (2) Methods: In 398 newborns from the Danish Newborn Screening Biobank, we examined if whole blood iron (WB-Iron) content were associated with cytokines, adipokines, C-reactive protein (CRP), and mannose-binding lectin (MBL) in non-infected healthy neonates, and if these associations differed in newborns who later developed T1D (cases) (n = 199). WB-Iron was quantified using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry on the neonatal dried blood spots. For each analyte, the relative change (RC) in the mean level was modeled by robust log-normal regression. (3) Results: A one unit increase in neonatal WB-Iron was associated with a 38% decrease in mean interleukin (IL)-6 levels (0.62; 95% CI: 0.40-0.95, p = 0.03), and a 37% decrease in mean MBL levels (0.63; 95% CI: 0.41-0.95, p = 0.03), but was not statistically significant after correction for multiple testing. (4) Conclusions: In summary, we found that higher neonatal WB-iron content was inversely associated with IL-6 and MBL, which may increase susceptibility to infections.
Transcriptomic Profiling of Circulating HLA-DR(-)Myeloid Cells, Compared with HLA-DR(+)Myeloid Antigen-presenting Cells
IMMUNOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS
Authors: Saleh, Reem; Taha, Rowaida Z.; Sasidharan Nair, Varun; Toor, Salman M.; Alajez, Nehad M.; Elkord, Eyad
Abstract
Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a heterogeneous population of cells with potent immunosuppressive functions, which can inhibit the activation of immune responses under a steady-state condition and pathological conditions. We performed transcriptomic profiling of circulating CD33(+)HLA-DR(+)myeloid antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and CD33(+)HLA-DR(-)myeloid cells (potentially MDSCs) in healthy individuals. We sorted both subpopulations from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 10 healthy donors and performed RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). We found that several signaling pathways associated with the positive regulation of immune responses, such as antigen presentation/processing, Fc gamma R-mediated phagocytosis and immune cell trafficking, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling, DC maturation, triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM1) signaling, nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) and IL-8 signaling were downregulated in CD33(+)HLA-DR(-)myeloid cells. In contrast, pathways implicated in tumor suppression and anti-inflammation, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), were upregulated in CD33(+)HLA-DR(-)myeloid cells. These data indicate that PPAR/PTEN axis could be upregulated in myeloid cells to keep the immune system in check in normal physiological conditions. Our data reveal some of the molecular and functional differences between CD33(+)HLA-DR(+)APCs and CD33(+)HLA-DR(-)myeloid cells in a steady-state condition, reflecting the potential suppressive function of CD33(+)HLA-DR(-)myeloid cells to maintain immune tolerance. For future studies, the same methodological approach could be applied to perform transcriptomic profiling of myeloid subsets in pathological conditions.