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Updated: Sep 24, 2025

Isolation of Leukocytes from the Murine Tissues at the Maternal-Fetal Interface
Published on: May 21, 2015
Establishment of tissue-resident immune populations in the fetus
Dorien Feyaerts1, Christopher Urbschat2, Brice Gaudillière1,3
1Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Abstract:
The immune system establishes during the prenatal period from distinct waves of stem and progenitor cells and continuously adapts to the needs and challenges of early postnatal and adult life. Fetal immune development not only lays the foundation for postnatal immunity but establishes functional populations of tissue-resident immune cells that are instrumental for fetal immune responses amidst organ growth and maturation. This review aims to discuss current knowledge about the development and function of tissue-resident immune populations during fetal life, focusing on the brain, lung, and gastrointestinal tract as sites with distinct developmental trajectories. While recent progress using system-level approaches has shed light on the fetal immune landscape, further work is required to describe precise roles of prenatal immune populations and their migration and adaptation to respective organ environments. Defining points of prenatal susceptibility to environmental challenges will support the search for potential therapeutic targets to positively impact postnatal health.
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