TUESDAY, Feb. 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Maternal HIV status is associated with inflammation/immune activation during pregnancy, which may affect child growth, according to a study published online Jan. 2 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Stephanie Shiau, Ph.D., M.P.H., from Rutgers School of Public Health in Piscataway, New Jersey, and colleagues examined the associations of HIV status, model of acquisition, and type of antiretroviral therapy (ART) with inflammation/immune activation in pregnancy using data for 188 pregnant people with HIV (PWH; 39 perinatally acquired and 149 non-perinatally acquired) and 76 HIV-seronegative persons.

The researchers found that in adjusted models, PWH had increased interleukin (IL)-6, soluble tumor necrosis factor alpha receptor 1 (sTNFR1), sCD14, and sCD163 and lower sTNRF2 relative to HIV-seronegative persons. Higher sCD163 was seen with perinatally acquired versus non-perinatally acquired HIV and with protease inhibitor-based versus integrase strand transfer inhibitor-based ART. Poorer growth at 12 months was observed in association with higher maternal concentrations of IL-6, sTNFR2, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein.

“Future research is warranted to better understand the role of ART in systemic inflammation/immune activation during pregnancy and whether modulating inflammation in pregnancy may improve maternal and infant health outcomes for pregnant PWH and their children,” the authors write.

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