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Innate Immune Activation and Circulating Inflammatory Markers in Preschool Children
Fiona Collier1,2, Cerys Chau3, Toby Mansell3
1School of Medicine, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
Insights
Early childhood infections trigger innate immune responses, potentially linking to adult non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Understanding childhood inflammation may help prevent future NCDs.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Immunology
- Infectious Disease Epidemiology
- Non-communicable Disease (NCD) Prevention
Background:
- Early childhood involves frequent infections, activating the innate immune system and inflammation.
- Childhood infections are epidemiologically linked to adult non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
- Understanding early-life inflammation is crucial for NCD prevention strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess cytokine responses and inflammatory markers in healthy preschool children.
- To investigate associations between immune parameters and non-genetic host factors.
- To explore the relationship between inflammation and potential preclinical NCD phenotypes.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of cytokine production and plasma inflammatory markers in preschool children (mean age 4.2 years).
- Assessment of associations with non-genetic factors: sex, age, adiposity, season, and immune cell composition.
- Evaluation of inflammatory markers GlycA and hsCRP in relation to cytokine production.
Main Results:
- Boys exhibited a higher inflammatory response than girls, with increased IL-12p70 and IL-10 after TLR stimulation.
- Adiposity and winter season correlated with elevated circulating inflammatory markers, but not cytokine production.
- GlycA and hsCRP showed positive associations with cytokine production, indicating innate immune function and inflammatory potential.
Conclusions:
- Childhood immune responses show sex-based differences, similar to adults.
- Adiposity and season influence inflammatory markers, suggesting environmental impacts on early-life immunity.
- Findings provide a dataset for future studies on immune parameters and preclinical NCDs in children.
Abstract:
Early childhood is characterised by repeated infectious exposures that result in inflammatory responses by the innate immune system. In addition, this inflammatory response to infection is thought to contribute to the epidemiological evidence linking childhood infection and adult non-communicable diseases. Consequently, the relationship between innate immune responses and inflammation during early life may inform prevention of NCDs later in life. In adults, non-genetic host factors such as age, sex, and obesity, strongly impact cytokine production and circulating mediators, but data in children are lacking. Here, we assessed cytokine responses and inflammatory markers in a population of healthy preschool children (mean age 4.2 years). We studied associations between cytokines, plasma inflammatory markers and non-genetic host factors, such as sex, age, adiposity, season, and immune cell composition. Similar to adults, boys had a higher inflammatory response than girls, with IL-12p70 and IL-10 upregulated following TLR stimulation. Adiposity and winter season were associated with increased circulating inflammatory markers but not cytokine production. The inflammatory markers GlycA and hsCRP were positively associated with production of a number of cytokines and may therefore reflect innate immune function and inflammatory potential. This dataset will be informative for future prospective studies relating immune parameters to preclinical childhood NCD phenotypes.
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