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Updated: Jul 31, 2026

Isolation of Leukocytes from the Human Maternal-fetal Interface
Published on: May 21, 2015
Immune interactions at the maternal-fetal interface: a focus on antigen presentation
Heather Huddleston1, Danny J Schust
1Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Fertility, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Problems:
Viruses and fetuses face similar immunologic challenges. Each must evade immune detection and destruction. The virus must avoid host recognition of intracellular infection; the fetus allogenic recognition. Each has manipulated the process of antigen presentation to allow survival in an immunologic environment otherwise predictably hostile. How have these approaches co-evolved? What can they teach us about viral pathogenesis and immunologic interactions at the maternal-fetal interface?
Method Of Study:
Review of relevant literature.
Results:
Special classical and non-classical MHC class I products are spared from downregulation in the placenta and from viral immunoevasive strategies.
Conclusions:
Viruses rely upon some of the same strategies to avoid immune detection as do trophoblast cells. In the future, viral infections may prove a useful tool for studies of immunology at the maternal-fetal interface.
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