Multi-Layered Mechanisms of Immunological Tolerance at the Maternal-Fetal Interface.

Immune Netw

Department of Systems Biology, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.

Published: August 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • Pregnancy involves a unique immune situation where the mother's body must accept the semi-foreign fetus, which carries genes from the father.
  • Successful pregnancy relies on complex mechanisms that promote immune tolerance, such as the barrier of the placenta, regulatory immune cells, and specific biological responses that protect the fetus.
  • Understanding how the body maintains this tolerance not only sheds light on pregnancy health but may also lead to new cancer treatments and insights into complications that arise when this tolerance is disrupted.

Article Abstract

Pregnancy represents an immunological paradox where the maternal immune system must tolerate the semi-allogeneic fetus expressing paternally-derived Ags. Accumulating evidence over decades has revealed that successful pregnancy requires the active development of robust immune tolerance mechanisms. This review outlines the multi-layered processes that establish fetomaternal tolerance, including the physical barrier of the placenta, restricted chemokine-mediated leukocyte trafficking, lack of sufficient alloantigen presentation, the presence of immunosuppressive regulatory T cells and tolerogenic decidual natural killer cells, expression of immune checkpoint molecules, specific glycosylation patterns conferring immune evasion, and unique metabolic/hormonal modulations. Interestingly, many of the strategies that enable fetal tolerance parallel those employed by cancer cells to promote angiogenesis, invasion, and immune escape. As such, further elucidating the mechanistic underpinnings of fetal-maternal tolerance may reciprocally provide insights into developing novel cancer immunotherapies as well as understanding the pathogenesis of gestational complications linked to dysregulated tolerance processes.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11377946PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.4110/in.2024.24.e30DOI Listing

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