Transcriptional profiles in pregnant women in response to vaccination

Vaccination in pregnancy is an effective tool to protect both the mother and infant. Vaccines against tetanus, pertussis and influenza are recommended for use in pregnancy and new vaccines with specific indications for pregnancy are in the clinical trials pipeline. However our understanding of the immune response to vaccination in pregnancy is incomplete. We compared the effect of pregnancy on early (24 hours) transcriptional responses to vaccination. Pregnant mice and women were immunised with Boostrix-IPV, a vaccine containing pertussis antigens. Pregnant women and mice were immunised with Boostrix-IPV, a multivalent vaccine, which containing three pertussis antigens. Blood was collected from women before and after vaccination and RNA extracted for analysis by microarray.