Maternal Helminth Infection Causes Dysfunctional B Cell Development in Male Offspring

Infections during pregnancy are known to trigger alterations in offspring immunity, often leading to increased disease susceptibility. Maternal helminth infections correlate with lower Ab titers to certain childhood immunizations and putative decreased vaccine efficacy. The mechanisms that underlie how maternal infection blunts offspring humoral responses are unclear. Using our murine model of maternal schistosomiasis, we found that maternal helminth infection decreases the germinal center response of all offspring to tetanus immunization. However, only male offspring have defects in memory B cell and long-lived plasma cell generation. We found this sex-specific aberration begins during B cell development within the bone marrow via alteration of the IL-7 niche and persists throughout antigenic activation in the germinal center in the periphery. Critically, these defects in males are cell intrinsic, persisting following adoptive transfer to control male pups. Together, these data show that maternal infections can alter both the bone marrow microenvironment and the development of B lymphocytes in a sex-specific manner. This study correlates maternal infection induced defects in early life B cell development with ineffective Ab responses after vaccination.