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Maternal uterine natural killer cells nurture fetal growth: in medio stat virtus

Francesco Colucci1, Jens Kieckbusch1

  • 1Centre for Trophoblast Research, University of Cambridge and Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, The Rosie Hospital, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 0SW, UK.

Trends in Molecular Medicine
|January 26, 2015
PubMed

Much research in reproductive immunology is preoccupied with maternal tolerance of the semi-allogeneic fetus. This inevitably leads to the assumption that the maternal immune system should be suppressed, similarly to the immunosuppression needed to avoid rejection of an allograft. However, the parallels with transplantation immunology are misleading, and we discuss how interactions between variable immune system genes expressed on maternal natural killer (NK) cells and on the fetal trophoblast modulate fetal growth. Exaggerated suppression or activation of maternal NK cells associates with both extremes of birth weight.

Keywords:
allorecognitionfetal growthmaternal toleranceuterine natural killer cells

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