%0 Journal Article
%T Neonatal Chlamydia muridarum respiratory infection causes neuroinflammation within the brainstem during the early postnatal period.
%A Hedley KE
%A Gomez HM
%A Kecelioglu E
%A Carroll OR
%A Jobling P
%A Horvat JC
%A Tadros MA
%J J Neuroinflammation
%V 21
%N 1
%D 2024 Jun 15
%M 38879567
%F 9.587
%R 10.1186/s12974-024-03150-3
%X Respiratory infections are one of the most common causes of illness and morbidity in neonates worldwide. In the acute phase infections are known to cause wide-spread peripheral inflammation. However, the inflammatory consequences to the critical neural control centres for respiration have not been explored. Utilising a well characterised model of neonatal respiratory infection, we investigated acute responses within the medulla oblongata which contains key respiratory regions. Neonatal mice were intranasally inoculated within 24 h of birth, with either Chlamydia muridarum or sham-infected, and tissue collected on postnatal day 15, the peak of peripheral inflammation. A key finding of this study is that, while the periphery appeared to show no sex-specific effects of a neonatal respiratory infection, sex had a significant impact on the inflammatory response of the medulla oblongata. There was a distinct sex-specific response in the medulla coincident with peak of peripheral inflammation, with females demonstrating an upregulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines and males showing very few changes. Microglia also demonstrated sex-specificity with the morphology of females and males differing based upon the nuclei. Astrocytes showed limited changes during the acute response to neonatal infection. These data highlight the strong sex-specific impact of a respiratory infection can have on the medulla in the acute inflammatory phase.