Veterinary scientist receives $15,000 grant from Children’s Miracle Network to study uterine, placental infection

Letitia Reyes, D.V.M., Ph.D., an assistant scientist in the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine’s department of pathobiology, has received a $15,000 grant from the Children’s Miracle Network to study infections of the uterus and placenta during pregnancy in rats.

“These types of infections can have devastating effects on newborns,” Reyes said. “Meningitis, cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral palsy, systemic infection, respiratory disease and even death can result.”

While it is not known what causes uterine and placental infections during pregnancy, nor how these infections relate to the severity of disease associated with them, epidemiologic studies suggest that the immune response of the mother and fetus during infection contributes to adverse pregnancy outcome.

Reyes said mycoplasmapulmonis genital tract infection in the rat is a good model for studying uterine infection. Research into two different rat strains has shown that one type develops a strong immune system response to the presence of the mycoplasma organism and goes on to develop severe disease. The other rat strain does not develop uterine disease or have adverse pregnancy outcome.

Reyes hopes to define the immune responses of each rat during intrauterine infection with mycoplasmapulmonis.

“Using the rat as an animal model, we will be able to identify some of the key factors that confer susceptibility or resistance to disease, and eventually we hope to be able to examine the human genome to identify the genes that contribute to uterine infection and adverse pregnancy outcome,” Reyes said. “We expect that an inappropriate immune response in Sprague Dawley rats is one of the underlying mechanisms that causes fetal infection, neonatal morbidity and mortality.”

Since most intrauterine infections are not clinically detectable until the fetus and pregnancy have been compromised, identification of women at high risk for placental infection would allow doctors to intervene early with various treatments, Reyes added.

Reyes graduated from UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 1988. She subsequently completed two residencies, in small animal medicine and laboratory animal medicine, at the college prior to completing her Ph.D. in 1999.