Fig. 3: Pulmonary immune changes in embryonic life affect adult allergic responses.
a Flow cytometric analysis of fetal lungs from asthmatic or control mothers (day 18 of fetal life); ILC2s were stimulated with PMA/ionomycin for 4 h, and cytokine production was assessed by intracellular staining. b Model of maternal anti-IL-7Rα treatment in late pregnancy. Female mice developed asthma during pregnancy (Fig. 1a) and were treated intravenously with isotype or anti-IL-7Rα antibodies on days 14, 16, and 18 of gestation. c Adult offspring of antibody-treated asthmatic mothers received PBS or HDM intranasally (Fig. 1a). Changes in eosinophil and ILC2 cell numbers in the lungs of adult offspring; ILC2s were stimulated with PMA/ionomycin for 4 h, and cytokine production was assessed by intracellular staining. In (a, c), data are representative of two independent experiments [(a), intracellular staining was evaluated once], each experiment with one pregnant dam per group, or pooled from two independent experiments, each experiment with one or two pregnant dams. Sample sizes were as follows: a PBS: n = 7, OVA: n = 6; c OVA(Iso)-PBS: n = 9, OVA(anti-IL-7Rα)-PBS: n = 6, OVA(Iso)-HDM: n = 14, OVA(anti-IL-7Rα)-HDM: n = 8. In (a, c), each dot represents an individual mouse. In (a, c), data are presented as the mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05; ****p < 0.0001; ns, not significant [unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test].
