Maternal-infant immune interactions and their impact on early-life immunity and immune programming

Pregnancy is a period of dynamic immune adaptation. The maternal immune system must tolerate the developing fetus while protecting against infection. Growing evidence shows that maternal infections, microbes, and environmental exposures can shape this balance and influence the development of the offspring’s immune system. Maternal infection and inflammation, changes in the maternal microbiota, exposure to microbial products, and exposure to pollutants and other environmental toxicants may alter placental function and fetal immune development, with effects that continue after birth.The placenta is more than a physical barrier. It is an active immune interface that responds to maternal infection, microbial signals, and environmental insults, including microbial products that engage host immune sensors. Changes in these responses may affect fetal immune cell development and the infant’s later responses to infection and vaccination. After birth, maternal microbiota, breastfeeding, and early environmental and microbial exposures may continue to shape immune maturation. We are particularly interested in work that follows prenatal exposures into the postnatal period, showing whether infant immunity is enhanced, inhibited, or dysregulated.Prenatal insults can also alter the developing thymus. Fetal thymic involution in response to infection, inflammation, or other insults may change the T cell repertoire that emerges in the first months of life, with possible consequences for infant immune competence. How these changes arise, how long they last, and how they relate to later disease risk remain open questions.Maternal vaccination can also help protect infants through the transfer of antibodies across the placenta. We welcome research on this topic where it examines maternal and neonatal responses to microbial pathogens. Metabolic, nutritional, and wider environmental exposures, including those described by the concept of the fetal exposome, are also in scope when they influence the maternal or fetal immune response, or the maternal microbial communities that shape it.This Research Topic will bring together research on how maternal infections, microbial exposures, environmental exposures, and host responses shape early life immunity. We welcome mechanistic, clinical, and translational work that clarifies these interactions and their consequences for infection risk and immune health in infancy and childhood.Topics of interest include:• Maternal microbiota and its influence on fetal and neonatal immune development • Maternal bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic infection and its effects on placental and offspring immunity • Microbial products, host sensors, and immune signaling at the maternal fetal interface • Maternal and infant microbiota, including microbial exposures associated with birth and breastfeeding • Maternal immunization against microbial pathogens and transfer of protective antibodies • Effects of prenatal exposures on neonatal immune cells, innate immune training, and lymphocyte development • Fetal thymic involution after prenatal insults and its effects on the T cell repertoire in early infancy • Postnatal immune outcomes of prenatal exposures, including enhanced, inhibited, or dysregulated infant responses • Environmental exposures during pregnancy, including pollution and toxicants, and the fetal exposome in relation to immune programming • Links between maternal exposures, prematurity, fetal growth, and early life infection risk • Epigenetic changes and biomarkers associated with exposure related immune programming • Metabolic and nutritional factors that alter maternal microbiota or immune responses to microbesWe invite original research articles, reviews, perspectives, and methods papers that advance understanding of how the maternal environment during pregnancy and early life programs the developing immune system. By consolidating mechanistic, clinical, and translational perspectives, this Research Topic seeks to clarify the pathways linking maternal health to lifelong immune outcomes in offspring, and to identify opportunities for early detection and intervention.The topic editors declare no conflict of interest Topic editors: MANUELA SALES NASCIMENTO, Chris Coe Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86579/maternal-infant-immune-interactions-and-their-impact-on-early-life-immunity-and-immune-programming