Stimulation of Cytokine Expression by Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of Neonatal Foals Using CpGs

摘要

Young foals are particularly susceptible to infectious diseases, Cytosine-phosphate-guanosine dinu-cleotide oligodeoxynucleotides can stimulate cytokine expression by peripheral blood mononuclear cells of young foals. This stimulation of innate immunity might aid in protecting foals against infectious diseases. Neonatal foals are susceptible to a variety of microbial infections that are generally associated with underlying immunodeficiencies in people and other animals, such as Candida albicans, Cryptosporidium parvum, Pneumocystis carinii, and Rhodo-coccus equi. These infections are rarer in adult horses than foals, suggesting an age-related deficiency in immunity. Innate and adaptive immune responses are diminished in human neonates, and these deficiencies predispose to infectious disease.1 Innate immune responses provide the first line of defense against infections and serve to instruct the development of adaptive immune responses.