Pregnancy impacts allergy‐related differences in the response to a type‐1 stimulus, staphylococcal enterotoxin A

To the Editor, Staphylococcus (S.) aureus is an intermittent or permanent skin colonizer in 90% of patients with airway diseases, and staphylococcal enterotoxin-IgE serum levels have been linked to both allergy and severe asthma.1, 2 During pregnancy, immune adaptation is required to ensure fetal growth,3 and type 2 responses are enhanced. These changes potentially worsen allergic conditions and increase the susceptibility to certain infections.4 Here we investigate the immune response to Staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA), a strong inducer of type 1 responses, in individuals with Th2-skewing,5 using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from allergic and non-allergic, pregnant and non-pregnant women6 (Figure 1A). Staphylococcal enterotoxins cause polyclonal T cell activation crosslinking the MHC-II on antigen-presenting cells (APCs) to the T-cell receptor (TCR) on T-cells (Figure 1B), leading to a strong proinflammatory response, potentially increasing IgE-production or disrupting the maternal-fetal tolerance.