Many women are still anxious about being vaccinated against coronavirus while pregnant, although data clearly shows that these vaccines are safe. A new study has found that, in contrast, contracting viruses during pregnancy is more dangerous, and not only for moms.
The recommendation to vaccinate pregnant women against coronavirus was given six months ago, yet many women still choose not to vaccinate for fear that the fetus will be harmed.
New research might change their minds.
A study, published in the prestigious scientific journal Science, found that viral infection during pregnancy might make the unborn child more prone to disease and health problems after birth and as the child develops.
Scientists from the US National Institutes of Health say that mild infections in the mother may damage their offspring's immune system. The study adds that this damage can trigger various chronic conditions including asthma, eczema and diseases which affect the intestinal tract.
According to the study's author Dr. A. Ing-Lim, the immune system develops and changes in response to antimicrobial exposure, but specifically how is still not understood. He said his study aimed to show that during pregnancy, medical problems in mothers may have a permanent effect on their children’s overall immunity to disease.
Experiments with mice show that the causes of viral diseases actually boost a fetus' immunity to intestinal infections. At the same time, it happens at the cost of a prolonged tendency to inflammatory disorders. The findings add to the evidence that the immune system begins to develop in the womb and is greatly affected by maternal health.
Pregnancy is often associated with suppressing the body's ability to fight disease. However, it’s unknown how undiagnosed daily infections will affect a developing child’s immune system in the future. Mild infections are often present in the urinary tract, respiratory and digestive systems, and often resolve themselves without specific treatment..
In this study researchers infected pregnant mice with Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, a sticky bacterium that can cause illness by oral infection and which is mild. The infection was short-lived and limited to the mother. However, the immune system cells in the intestines known as T-cells increased in offspring and continued to rise until adulthood.
Another study found that the viral infection triggered a chemical in mothers called IL-6 (interleukin-6), a protein from the cytokinin group which has an important role in the immune system. This protein causes inflammation in response to the infection. In fact, it altered the intestinal stem cells of mice embryos. Dr. Lim adds that while these offspring showed increased immunity to intestinal infection, they also showed a higher susceptibility to inflammatory bowel diseases, such as colitis.
The findings may shed light on increasing cases of allergies and behavioral conditions like ADHD and autism.
In recent decades there has been a notable increase in inflammatory disorders in children, including asthma, allergies and behavioral difficulties, the researchers explained in a subsequent press release. They recommended that future studies examine whether immune programming in the womb could be the root cause of these inflammatory disorders.