Atividade funcional de fagócitos do colostro humano de mães com excesso de peso estimulados com citocina tnf-α para escherichia coli enteropatogênica

Abstract

Introduction: The increased prevalence of obesity during pregnancy is a major public health problem in the world. Taking into account that obesity is characterized as a chronic inflammation, the maternal immune response may be compromised, which may lead to complications including fetal complications and immunological changes in human colostrum. Considering that there is passage of maternal immunological components to the infant during breastfeeding, it is important to analyze alternatives that aim at an improvement in the immune response of neonates of overweight mothers. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the present study was to evaluate if the cytokine TNF-α is capable of modulating the phagocytes of the colostrum of overweight mothers through the evaluation of cell viability, phagocytosis index and microbicide index. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on samples of colostrum collected in the city of Barra do Garças, considering the pre gestational nutritional status. Fifteen mothers divided according to their BMI (eutrophic = 5, overweight = 5 and obese = 5) were evaluated. The viability, phagocytosis index and microbicidal activity of colostrum mononuclear phagocytes were evaluated by the fluorescence microscopy technique with the use of acridine orange. Results and Discussion: The viability of colostrum cells presented indices around 90%. Regarding phagocytosis, TNF-α modulated positively, and the group with the highest indexes observed was the obesity group. In the microbicide activity, TNF-α positively modulated only the obesity group. Conclusion: The results of the present study allow us to conclude that TNF-α contributed to the improvement in the phagocytosis and microbicide rates of mononuclear cells in obese mothers' colostrum, supporting the hypothesis that the use of this cytokine may be used as an immunological modulator in this population.