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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Immunological Tolerance and Regulation
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1522842
This article is part of the Research Topic Immunometabolism in Immunological Tolerance and Regulation: Novel Mechanisms and Clinical Interventions View all 6 articles
Helicobacter pylori Outer Membrane Vesicles Mediate Central Tolerance in C57BL/6J Mice Offspring T Cells via Maternal-Fetal Transmission
Provisionally accepted- 1 Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
- 2 Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China
Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) released by Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori) can enter the blood circulation of the host and cause extra-gastric lesions such as atherosclerosis and hyperemesis gravidarum. This study aimed to investigate the effect of OMVs released by H.pylori on the development of thymic T cells in offspring mice and its underlying mechanisms. Through experimental observations, we found that H.pylori OMVs were able to cross the placental barrier, leading to a decrease in the number of CD3+ and CD4+ T cells in the peripheral blood of the offspring mice and a decrease in the response of T cells to H.pylori stimulation. After stimulation with OMVs in T cell positive selection experiments, the expression levels of CHMP5, IKK-β, and NF-κB are up-regulated, and the release of cytokines IL-7, IL-2, IL-4, and IFN-γ is simultaneously increased, whereas in T cell negative selection experiments, the expression of JNK is up-regulated, and the expression of CHMP5 and Bcl-2 is down-regulated in E15-16 fetal thymus organ culture. These results indicate that transmission of H. pylori OMVs from mother to fetus might be related to the development of central tolerance in offspring T cells. The underlying mechanism may involve an interaction between the OMVs-stimulated pathway and the TCR pathway, although further research is needed to confirm this hypothesis. The study highlights the importance of preventing H.pylori infection during pregnancy and suggests that the effect of centrally tolerated antigens needs to be considered in vaccine design to maximize prevention.
Keywords: Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori), Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), Pregnancy, T cells, Central Tolerance
Received: 05 Nov 2024; Accepted: 26 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wei, Zhou, Zhao, Qiu, Hu and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Dailun Hu, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
Zhongli Shi, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
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