When a person experiences an injury or infection, the body's immune system responds with inflammation to start the healing process. However, inflammation can occur in much less helpful circumstances – for example, when a person experiences psychological stress or consistently eats a poor diet high in sugars, fats, and processed foods. When such inflammation occurs during pregnancy, it increases the risk of problems for the baby, particularly for neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD, autism, and learning disabilities.
A University of Oklahoma researcher has earned a new grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund to explore how that risk occurs and whether there is a means of helping the fetus become more resilient to inflammation. The underlying theme for this research is prenatal inflammation. It's not inflammation in response to an active infection like a virus might cause, but the inflammation is similar regardless of the type of stressor.
Our work is focused on finding a mechanism that can promote resilience across a number of different stressors rather than a specific one." Lindsay Hayes, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cell Biology, OU College of Medicine, OU Health Sciences, The University of Oklahoma How the research is conducted In her search for resilience, Hayes is seeking to better understand the behavior of a specific type of immune cell – the microglia, which are the primary immune cells in the brain. During pregnancy, the microglia arrive early in the embryo's brain.