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Ex vivo Culture of Human Placental Explants for the Study of Viral Transmission Across the Maternal-Fetal Interface
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[Factors and conditions affecting the process of infecting the fetus during different pregnancy stages]

E I Borovkova, I S Sidorova, A A Vorob'ev

    Vestnik Rossiiskoi Akademii Meditsinskikh Nauk
    |March 17, 2004
    PubMed

    Etiology, pathogenesis of intrauterine infection of the fetus, factors promoting such infection and the status of the local immune system are elucidated in the paper. A changed reactivity of the immune homeostasis of a pregnant woman with a chronic infection was shown to be potentially an important factor of pathogenesis of defects in her baby. The local immunity factors of the reproductive tract, i.e. the vagina and neck of uterus, are in the forefront of anti-infectious protection, which signal an alert or limit the microorganisms' reproduction; besides, they prevent the microorganisms from penetrating into the upper genitals. The therapeutic-and-preventive schemes applicable to infected women must comprise measures targeted at eliminating an infectious agent and at normalizing the pathological changes in the performance of the immune system activity.

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