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Updated: Dec 13, 2025

Induction of Maternal Immune Activation in Mice at Mid-gestation Stage with Viral Mimic PolyI:C
Published on: March 25, 2016
The Role of Immune Factors in Shaping Fetal Neurodevelopment
Alice Lu-Culligan1, Akiko Iwasaki1,2,3
1Department of Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06519, USA.
Abstract:
Fetal neurodevelopment in utero is profoundly shaped by both systemic maternal immunity and local processes at the maternal-fetal interface. Immune pathways are a critical participant in the normal physiology of pregnancy and perturbations of maternal immunity due to infections during this period have been increasingly linked to a diverse array of poor neurological outcomes, including diseases that manifest much later in postnatal life. While experimental models of maternal immune activation (MIA) have provided groundbreaking characterizations of the maternal pathways underlying pathogenesis, less commonly examined are the immune factors that serve pathogen-independent developmental functions in the embryo and fetus. In this review, we explore what is known about the in vivo role of immune factors in fetal neurodevelopment during normal pregnancy and provide an overview of how MIA perturbs the proper orchestration of this sequence of events. Finally, we discuss how the dysregulation of immune factors may contribute to the manifestation of a variety of neurological disorders.
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