Pregnancy imprints regulatory memory that sustains anergy to fetal antigen.

ABSTRACT: Pregnancy is an intricately orchestrated process where immune effector cells with fetal specificity are selectively silenced. This requires the sustained expansion of immune-suppressive maternal FOXP3(+) regulatory T cells (T(reg) cells), because even transient partial ablation triggers fetal-specific effector T-cell activation and pregnancy loss. In turn, many idiopathic pregnancy complications proposed to originate from disrupted fetal tolerance are associated with blunted maternal T(reg) expansion. Importantly, however, the antigen specificity and cellular origin of maternal T(reg) cells that accumulate during gestation remain incompletely defined. Here we show that pregnancy selectively stimulates the accumulation of maternal FOXP3(+) CD4 cells with fetal specificity using tetramer-bas

SUBMITTER: Rowe JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3465465 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature