Cytokine Shift
The proliferation, invasion and differentiation of trophoblast cells during implantation is a tightly controlled process coordinated by a system of intercellular signals mediated by cytokines, growth factors and hormones.13,14 An extensive array of cytokines is produced at the tropho-blast-maternal interface that contributes to the well being of the feto-placental unit. Furthermore, these cytokines to a great extent regulate maternal immune responses, which play an important role for a...
Pregnancy Represents an Allograft
Cases of recurrent abortions, preeclampsia or babies born with hemolytic diseases of the newborn still puzzle us with the of the question Why did your mother reject you Although, after looking at the complexity of the maternal-fetal immune interaction and the cases of successful pregnancies, with surprise and admiration the question now becomes Why didn't your mother reject you Medawar, in the early 1950s, recognized for the first time the unique immunology of the maternal-fetal interface and...
Defining Immunology of Pregnancy
Colbern and Main in 1991 redefined the conceptual framework of reproductive immunology as maternal-placental tolerance instead of maternal-fetal tolerance, focusing the interaction of the maternal immune system on the placenta and not on the fetus.1 The embryo in early development divides into two groups of cells, an internal, the inner cell mass, which give rise to the embryo and an external layer, the embryonic trophoblast that becomes trophoblast cells and later the placenta. The cells from...
The Pregnant Uterus as an Immune Privileged Site
Implantation is the process by which the blastocyst becomes intimately connected with the maternal endometrium decidua. During this period, the semi-allogenic fetus is in direct contact with the maternal uterine and blood-borne cells however, as I pointed above, fetal rejection by the maternal immune system, in the majority of the cases, is prevented by mechanism s yet undefined. A number of mechanisms have been proposed to account for the immune-privileged state of the decidua. The different...
Gil Mor MD PhD
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Reproductive Immunology Unit Yale University School of Medicine New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. Springer Science Business Media New York, New York U.S.A. Landes Bioscience Eurekah.com Springer Science Business Media, Inc. ISBN 0-387-30612-9 Printed on acid-free paper. Copyright 2006 Eurekah.com and Springer Science Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the...
5 The Regulation of Human Trophoblast Apoptosis and Survival
during Shawn L. Straszewski-Chavez and Gil Mor Death Receptor-Mediated The Extrinsic The Intrinsic The Apoptotic Cascade in Trophoblast Endogenous Regulators of Trophoblast Exogenous Regulation of Trophoblast Trophoblast Apoptosis and Complicated Pregnancies 56 The Future of Trophoblast 6. Macrophages and Gil Mor, Roberto Romero and Vikki M. Abrahams Apoptosis and in Pregnancy-Associated 7. Potential Role of Glucocorticoids in the Pathophysiology of Intrauterine Growth Restriction Seth Guller,...