Parasitology

Biography

Biography: Amany A Abd El-Aal

Abstract

This work aimed to study gene expression profile of pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines in Toxoplasma sero-positive women presenting with repeated abortion compared to Toxoplasma sero-positive multiparous women with no history of abortions. The study groups included; group I: 19 cases of repeated abortions with no successful pregnancy, group II: 28 multiparous women, without any abortions and group III: 14 multigravida with successful pregnancies & suffered few abortions. All samples were positive for anti Toxoplasma IgG and IgM. Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) system was optimized to measure gene expression of pro-inflammatory IFN-γ & TNF-α and anti-inflammatory IL-10 & TGF-β cytokines. All studied cytokines were significantly up-regulated in group I, with remarkable bias towards IFN-γ, denoting a predominant inflammatory state in group I, compared to the other groups. In group II; the 4 tested cytokines were approximately in a balanced state with a little shift towards the anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10 & TGF-β). Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was detected between pro-inflammatory together (p=0.002, r=0.96) and between anti-inflammatory cytokines together (p=0.0008, r=0.99) in group II, indicating the harmonized and synchronized expression of both pro & anti-inflammatory cytokines. In group III, IL-10 was relatively higher versus other cytokines with negative correlation with IFN-γ (p=0.006, r=0.93), indicating the possible regulatory role of IL10 in saving some of pregnancies’ outcomes in group III. The results of the present study suggests a potential role of these cytokines in the upcoming prognostic or/and therapeutic concerns in women suffering from repeated abortion associated with chronic toxoplasmosis.