ACKR2 in pregnancy v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The systemic expression of atypical chemokine receptor 2 in pregnancy.
IRAS ID
225448
Contact name
Hanna Johnsson
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Chemokines are molecules which direct the movement of cells involved in inflammation and their activity can be modulated by atypical chemokine receptors (ACKRs). One of these, ACKR2, can limit the extent of inflammation.
There is a lot of ACKR2 in the placenta and it protects the fetus from dying during inflammatory conditions in mice. In humans, there is also a lot of ACKR2 in the placenta throughout pregnancy and less of the inflammatory chemokines it modulates in the blood. It is not known if ACKR2 in the placenta is responsible for this reduction, if there is ACKR2 at work elsewhere in the body or if less chemokines are made. From studies on the skin condition psoriasis, which typically gets better during pregnancy, we know that ACKR2 can be made throughout the body to stop inflammation from spreading. We therefore want to find out if more ACKR2 is made elsewhere during pregnancy.
To investigate this, we will analyse blood samples, skin samples and placentas from women undergoing planned caesarean sections. The amount of ACKR2 in the samples will be compared to that in blood and skin from healthy controls. The aim is to better understand the role of ACKR2 in suppressing inflammation during pregnancy.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
17/WS/0174
Date of REC Opinion
1 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion