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Review
. 2017 Jul 25:6:1216.
doi: 10.12688/f1000research.11690.1. eCollection 2017.

Up-and-down immunity of pregnancy in humans

Philippe Le Bouteiller  1 , Armand Bensussan  1
Affiliations
Review

Up-and-down immunity of pregnancy in humans

Philippe Le Bouteiller et al. F1000Res. .

Abstract

One part of the human placenta in early pregnancy is particularly important for local immunity: the decidua basalis, which is transformed endometrium located at the site of embryo implantation . This placental bed tissue contains both maternal uterine immune cells, including decidual natural killer (NK) cells, the dominant leukocyte population exhibiting a unique phenotype, and fetal extravillous trophoblast which comes into direct contact with maternal decidual cells . To establish a successful placental development and healthy pregnancy outcome, the maternal immune system must tolerate paternal antigens expressed by trophoblast cells yet remain efficient for clearing any local pathogen infection. This review deals mainly with decidual NK cells. A key element, among others, to achieve such dual functions is the direct interaction between activating and inhibitory receptors expressed by decidual NK cells and their specific ligands presented by trophoblast or other decidual cells. Depending whether maternal decidual cells and trophoblast are infected by viruses, the balance between activating and inhibitory receptor signals mediated by decidual NK cell-trophoblast cross-talk results in tolerance (healthy pregnancy) or specific killing (pathogen-infected cells).

Keywords: decidua basalis; immune tolerance; maternal immune system.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.No competing interests were disclosed.No competing interests were disclosed.

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