Prenatal stress is reported to increase the risk of nervous, endocrine and metabolism diseases, immune dysfunction. The influence of prenatal stress on immune system is complicated, which include the changes of immune cells, cytokines, immune organs, hematopoietic stem cells. The mechanism accepted is that prenatal stress cause secretion changes of stress hormones like adrenaline and glucocorticoids which lead to cascade response of systematic modifications. This paper reviews the influence of main long-last hormone, glucocorticoids on immune systems, and further discover the alteration of the central immune organs, the bone marrow and thymus, which is one of the reason that prenatal stress cause prolonged influence in immune function of offspring. As the inner environment of prenatal offspring owns many specific aspects compared with the adults, the affects of prenatal stress are different from adult stress. However, parts of the body response are similar. So it may be helpful to further study of prenatal stress by comparing these two.

Prenatal stress can cause modifications in immune system of offspring. At present, various stress factors are studied, including social, environmental factors and so on. Because of the existence of complicated factors, experimental results are varied. The comparison between prenatal stress and stress in adulthood show great similarity. It may suggest there may be an analogous mechanism in prenatal stressed offspring and can provide more research directions for further study and preventative health interference before the birth of fetus. It is proved that long-term stress suppresses immune function, including reduce proliferation of lymphocytes and diminish body resistance against tumors or infection.

Impact that prenatal stress and adult stress exert on immune system was compared in this paper, including alteration in immune cells, cytokines, hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and microenvironment. For the adult stress, chronic stress is studied for its long-lasting effect. The effect is systematic, and the neuroendocrine system and immune system co-react with each other. Similarly, chronic prenatal stress will cause dysfunction of several systems in offspring. The prenatal stress leaves offspring prolonged immune disturbance, the origin can be the modification of nervous axis and haemopoietic cells, including stem cells and haemopoietic microenvironment. The placenta is also important in the protective and regulatory mechanism. However, there is stills plethora of questions about the mechanism about the modification of immune system, and the influence on immune imprinting is not quite clear. More researches and epidemiological surveys are necessary for further understanding about prenatal stress.

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