Browsing by Author "Kacerovsky, Marian"

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    Cellular immune responses in amniotic fluid of women with preterm prelabor rupture of membranes
    (WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH, 2020) Galaz, Jose; Romero, Roberto; Slutsky, Rebecca; Xu, Yi; Motomura, Kenichiro; Para, Robert; Pacora, Percy; Panaitescu, Bogdan; Hsu, Chaur Dong; Kacerovsky, Marian; Gomez Lopez, Nardhy
    Background: Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality. Preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (pPROM) occurs in 30% of preterm births; thus, this complication is a major contributor to maternal and neonatal morbidity. However, the cellular immune responses in amniotic fluid of women with pPROM have not been investigated.
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    Defining a role for Interferon Epsilon in normal and complicated pregnancies
    (2022) Miller, Derek; Romero, Roberto; Kacerovsky, Marian; Musilova, Ivana; Galaz, Jose; Garcia-Flores, Valeria; Xu, Yi; Pusod, Errile; Demery-Poulos, Catherine; Gutierrez-Contreras, Pedro; Ning Liu, Tzu; Jung, Eunjung; Theis, Kevin R.; Coleman, Lanetta A.; Gomez-Lopez, Nardhy
    Interferon epsilon (IFNe) is a recently described cytokine that is constitutively expressed in the female repro-ductive tract. However, the role of this hormonally regulated cytokine during human pregnancy is poorly un-derstood. Moreover, whether IFNe participates in host immune response against bacteria-driven intra-amniotic infection or cervical human papillomavirus infection during pregnancy is unknown. Herein, using a unique set of human samples derived from multiple study cohorts, we aimed to uncover the role of IFNe in normal and complicated pregnancies. We showed that IFNe is expressed in the myometrium, cervix, and chorioamniotic membranes, and may therefore represent a constitutive element of host defense mechanisms in these tissues during pregnancy. The expression of IFNe in the myometrium and cervix appeared greater in late gestation than in mid-pregnancy, but did not seem to be impacted by labor. Notably, concentrations of IFNe in amniotic fluid, but not cervical fluid, were increased in a subset of women undergoing spontaneous preterm labor with intra-amniotic infection, indicating that IFNe could participate in anti-microbial responses in the amniotic cavity. However, stimulation with Ureaplasma parvum and/or lipopolysaccharide did not enhance IFNE expression by amnion epithelial or cervical cells in vitro, implicating alternative sources of this cytokine during intra-amniotic or cervical infection, respectively. Collectively, our results represent the first characterization of IFNe expression by human reproductive and gestational tissues during normal pregnancy and suggest a role for this cytokine in intra-amniotic infection leading to preterm birth.
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    Microbial burden and inflammasome activation in amniotic fluid of patients with preterm prelabor rupture of membranes
    (2020) Theis, Kevin R.; Romero, Roberto; Motomura, Kenichiro; Galaz, Jose; Winters, Andrew D.; Pacora, Percy; Miller, Derek; Slutsky, Rebecca; Florova, Violetta; Levenson, Dustyn; Para, Robert; Varrey, Aneesha; Kacerovsky, Marian; Hsu, Chaur-Dong; Gomez-Lopez, Nardhy
    Background: Intra-amniotic inflammation, which is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, can occur in the presence or absence of detectable microorganisms, and involves activation of the inflammasome. lntra-amniotic inflammasome activation has been reported in clinical chorioamnionitis at term and preterm labor with intact membranes, but it has not yet been investigated in women with preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (preterm PROM) in the presence/absence of detectable microorganisms. The aim of this study was to determine whether, among women with preterm PROM, there is an association between detectable microorganisms in amniotic fluid and intra-amniotic inflammation, and whether intra-amniotic inflammasome activation correlates with microbial burden.