Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 16;11(1):223.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms11010223.

Low Interferon-γ Levels in Cord and Peripheral Blood of Pregnant Women Infected with SARS-CoV-2

Michele Cennamo  1 , Evelina La Civita  1 , Laura Sarno  2 , Gianluigi Carbone  1 , Sarah Di Somma  1 , Serena Cabaro  1 , Jacopo Troisi  3 , Angelo Sirico  2 , Francesco Paolo Improda  4 , Maurizio Guida  2 , Daniela Terracciano  1 , Giuseppe Portella  1
Affiliations

Low Interferon-γ Levels in Cord and Peripheral Blood of Pregnant Women Infected with SARS-CoV-2

Michele Cennamo et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

COVID-19 is characterized by the immune system's overreaction resulting in a 'cytokine storm', consisting in a massive release of cytokine into the bloodstream, leading to local and systemic inflammatory response. This clinical picture is further complicated in case of infection of patients with a peculiar immunological status, such as pregnancy. In this paper, we focused on Interferon-γ, which plays a pivotal immunomodulatory role in normal pregnancy and fetal development, as well as in defense against pathogens. In this study, we compared the levels of Interferon-γ and the Interferon autoantibodies of the peripheral and cord blood of pregnant women with confirmed mild COVID-19 and healthy pregnant women. The Interferon-γ was significantly lower both in the peripheral and cord blood of SARS-CoV-2-positive mothers, suggesting that infection can affect the fetal microenvironment even without severe maternal symptoms. In conclusion, further studies are needed to clarify whether lower levels of Interferon-γ due to SARS-CoV-2 infection affect the development or infection susceptibility of infants born to SARS-CoV-2-infected mothers.

Keywords: Interferon-γ; SARS-CoV-2; anti-Interferon antibody; cord blood; immune system; pregnancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Lymphocyte count in maternal blood. Lymphocytes were counted in EDTA blood using ADVIA 2 analyzer. Lymphocyte concentration is expressed as 1000/µL. Box plots denote median and 25th to 75th percentiles (boxes) and min-to-max whiskers. The p value was evaluated using unpaired t-test.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Serum IFN-γ in maternal blood and cord blood (a) and serum IFN antibodies (b). Box plots denote median and 25th to 75th percentiles (boxes) and Tukey whiskers. The p value was evaluated using unpaired t-test and Mann–Whitney test.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Simple linear regression of (a) IFN-γ levels (pg/mL) in maternal blood and cord blood; (b) lymphocyte count (1000/μL) and IFN-γ levels (pg/mL) in maternal blood. Each subject is represented on a scatter plot.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic representation of lymphocyte and IFN-γ decrease in maternal and cord blood. Parts of the figure were drawn using pictures from Servier Medical Art by Servier, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mizumoto K., Kagaya K., Zarebski A., Chowell G. Estimating the asymptomatic proportion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, Yokohama, Japan, 2020. Eurosurveillance. 2020;25:2000180. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.10.2000180. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nishiura H., Kobayashi T., Miyama T., Suzuki A., Jung S.-M., Hayashi K., Kinoshita R., Yang Y., Yuan B., Akhmetzhanov A.R., et al. Estimation of the asymptomatic ratio of novel coronavirus infections (COVID-19) Int. J. Infect. Dis. 2020;94:154–155. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.03.020. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Forouzesh M., Rahimi A., Valizadeh R., Dadashzadeh N., Mirzazadeh A. Clinical display, diagnostics and genetic implication of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic. Eur. Rev. Med. Pharmacol. Sci. 2020;24:4607–4615. - PubMed
    1. Chakraborty I., Maity P. COVID-19 outbreak: Migration, effects on society, global environment and prevention. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;728:138882. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138882. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gorbalenya A.E., Baker S.C., Baric R.S., de Groot R.J., Drosten C., Gulyaeva A.A., Haagmans B.L., Lauber C., Leontovich A.M., Neuman B.W., et al. Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus: The species and its viruses—A statement of the Coronavirus Study Group. BioRxiv. :2020. doi: 10.1101/2020.02.07.937862. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources