EP11.07: The effect of maternal inflammatory rheumatic disease on the vasculature of offspring demonstrated on the umbilical cord

Pregnancies of individuals with systemic autoimmune diseases, such as inflammatory joint diseases (IJD) and connective tissue disorders (CTD), are often complicated with premature delivery, fetal growth restriction, pre-eclampsia, or stillbirth. It seems that maternal inflammatory factors influence maternal and fetal vasculature, hence increase the incidence of such complications. In this study we aim to analyse the effect of maternal inflammatory factors on the vasculature of the new-born focusing on the umbilical cord (UC) vein. We analysed sera and tissue of UC of the offspring of mothers suffering from IJD (n = 8) and CTD (n = 8) compared to healthy controls (HC) (n = 8). We performed a cytokine array for 105 inflammatory markers of pooled sera of venous cord blood for differences between the three groups and validated the results by individual ELISAs. Subsequently, we analysed the UC samples with H and E staining to detect cellular infiltration, as well as Elastica van Gieson (EvG) staining for measuring intima and media thickness. Additionally, we investigated the expression of pro-inflammatory adhesion molecules by quantification of the immunofluorescence (IF) intensity for ICAM-1. Several differently expressed cytokines were detected. IL- 8 expression showed an unexpected prominent increase in UC sera of IJD mothers compared to the other groups. We performed IL-8 ELISA and detected an increase in sera of the IJD group. No cellular infiltration in any group or no statistically significant difference in intima thickness and media thickness was detectable, although a trend for increased intima thickness for IJD patients was determined. IJD patients showed increased IF- intensity for ICAM-1 compared to HC group (not statistically significant). In our preliminary study we observe increased inflammatory responses in venous cord samples of patients with IJD. However, the effect on the vasculature of the offspring has to be clarified and our results need to be confirmed on a larger patient collective.