The Chemokine XCL1 Functions As a Pregnancy Hormone to Program Offspring Innate Anxiety

Overview

Journal Brain Behav Immun

Publisher Elsevier

Specialties Allergy & Immunology
Neurology
Psychiatry

Date 2024 Mar 1

PMID 38428650

Authors

Rosa J Chen

Anika Nabila

Judit Gal Toth

Heidi Stuhlmann

Miklos Toth

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Elevated levels of cytokines in maternal circulation increase the offspring's risk for neuropsychiatric disease. Because of their low homeostatic levels, circulating maternal cytokines during normal pregnancies have not been considered to play a role in fetal brain development and offspring behavior. Here we report that the T/NK cell chemotactic cytokine XCL1, a local paracrine immune signal, can function as a pregnancy hormone and is required for the proper development of placenta and male offspring approach-avoidance behavior. We found that circulating XCL1 levels were at a low pregestational level throughout pregnancy except for a midgestational rise and fall. Blunted elevation in maternal plasma XCL1 in dams with a genetic 5HT1A receptor deficit or following neutralization by anti-XCL1 antibodies increased the expression of tissue damage associated factors in WT fetal placenta and led to increased innate anxiety and stress reactivity in the WT male offspring. Therefore, chemokines like XCL1 may act as pregnancy hormones to regulate placenta development and offspring emotional behavior.

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