Chapter category: Reproductive Biology
Interleukin-1 and Implantation
Immunology of Pregnancy
Edited by: Gil MorISBN: 0-387-30612-9
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Chapter authors:
Jan-S. Krussel, Jens Hirchenhain, Andrea Schanz, Alexandra P. Hess, Hong-Yuan Huang, Carlos Sim—n and Mary Lake Polan
Infertility and pregnancy wastage affect one of every nine couples in Western Europe and in the United States. The molecular events of embryonic attachment to the endometrial epithelium and subsequent invasion and nidation into the stroma have long been of interest, scientifically to reproductive biologists and clinically to couples with infertility or habitual abortion and to the physicians caring for them. In order to achieve a successful pregnancy in the human, two major conditions have to be fulfilled: during the 4-5 days of transport through the fallopian tube, the embryo must undergo a series of complex maturation processes and, in the same time, a receptive endometrium must have developed. Human endometrium undergoes characteristic cyclic changes of proliferation and secretion and, without embryonic implantation, the endometrium is shed and the menstrual bleeding occurs. Uterine endometrium therefore is the anatomic prerequisite for the continuation of our species and its main purpose during the reproductive age is to communicate with, receive, nourish and protect the implanting blastocyst.1 Understanding the factors involved in preimplantation embryo development and embryo-maternal interaction which result in the complex maturation of the embryo and eutopic implantation is crucial for reproductive medicine. Attempts to overcome the low success rates of human in vitro fertilization therapy by increasing the number of embryos per transfer often result in multiple-gestation pregnancies. These are not only associated with increased evidence of maternal and neonatal complications, but are also cause for concern on the part of medical economists. The total costs for delivery and neonatal care for triplet-pregnancies were calculated with US$ 109,765 and assisted reproduction techniques (ART) were responsible for 77% of higher order pregnancies.2 On the other hand, even by increasing the number of embryos per transfer, the pregnancy rate will never be 100%.
Additional chapters from this book:
Immunology of Implantation: An Introduction
Gil Mor
Cases of recurrent abortions, preeclampsia or babies born with hemolytic diseases of the new born, still puzzle us with the question “Why did your mother reject you?” Although, after looking at the ...
Inherited Thrombophilias and Early Pregnancy Loss
Jens Langhoff-Roos, Michael J. Paidas, De-Hui Ku, Yale S. Arkel and Charles J. Lockwood
Inherited thrombophilias are a heterogeneous group of conditions which have been associated with a variety of pregnancy complications, including early and late fetal loss, intrauterine growth restri...
NK Cells and Pregnancy
Mikael Eriksson, Satarupa Basu and Charles L. Sentman
Natural killer cells are found in large numbers in the endometrium and decidua, and data suggest that NK cell functions and interactions with fetal-derived trophoblasts can have a profound impact on...
Indoleamine 2,3 Dioxygenase dependent T cell Suppression and Pregnancy
Babak Baban, Phillip R. Chandler and Andrew L Mellor
Viviparity remains an immunological paradox despite increased knowledge of immunological processes that occur during mammalian pregnancy. The maternal immune system protects both mother and fetus fr...
Actions of Seminal Plasma Cytokines in Priming Female Reproductive Tract Receptivity for Embryo Implantation
Sarah A. Robertson, John J. Bromfield, Danielle J. Glynn, David J. Sharkey and Melinda J. Jasper
Embryo implantation is critically dependent on a supportive uterine environment. Uter ine receptivity is the culmination of a cellular and molecular transformation mediated locally by paracrine sign...
Leukemia Inhibitory Factor in Reproduction
Levent M. Senturk and Aydin Arici
To describe the clinical findings and implications of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) in human reproduction. Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine of the interleukin-6 family a...
IL-10 and Pregnancy
Shaun P. Murphy and Surendra Sharma
Soon after the principles of nonself immunological recognition were discovered, it was realized that the state of pregnancy seemingly presents a paradox. In an outbreed popula tion, half of the feta...
MHC Molecules of the Preimplantation Embryo and Trophoblast
Martina Comiskey, Carol M. Warner and Danny J. Schust
The mechanisms of protection of the allogeneic fetus from the maternal immune response during pregnancy remain mysterious more than fifty years after the paradox of maternal tolerance was first rais...
The Nature and Role of the Decidual T Cells
Lucia Mincheva-Nilsson and Vladimir Baranov
The immunological paradox of mammalian pregnancy is the acceptance of the fetus, a semiallogeneic allograft that normally should provoke an immune response of the maternal T cells leading to f...
The Eutherian Fetoembryonic Defense System Hypothesis: An Update
Gary F. Clark, Anne Dell, Howard Morris and Manish S. Patankar
All sexually reproducing organisms produce gametes that must be protected from immune challenge. Recent data indicates that the majority of the carbohydrate sequences that coat the murine zona pellu...
The Role of Regulatory T Cells in Materno-Fetal Tolerance
Varuna R. Aluvihare and Alexander G. Betz
Maternal immune tolerance to paternal allo-antigens expressed by the fetus is a precondition of successful pregnancy in viviparous mammals. This occurs despite exposure of the maternal immune system...
Potential Role of Glucocorticoids in the Pathophysiology of Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR)
Seth Guller, Yuehong Ma and Men-Jean Lee
Although the etiology of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and preeclampsia (PE) remains unclear, most investigators attribute the initial “insult” to poor utero-placental perfusion due to defe...
Macrophages and Pregnancy
Gil Mor, Roberto Romero, Vikki M. Abrahams
During implantation, apoptosis is critical for the appropriate tissue remodeling of the maternal decidua and invasion of the developing embryo. Yet the regulation of apoptosis is also imperative for...
The Regulation of Human Trophoblast Apoptosis and Survival During Pregnancy
Shawn L. Straszewski-Chavez and Gil Mor
Apoptosis occurs in the villous trophoblast of normal placentas throughout pregnancy, but with higher frequency near term in comparison to the first trimester. In pregnancies complicated by preeclam...
Toll Like Receptors and Pregnancy
Vikki M. Abrahams and Gil Mor
The maternal-fetal interface represents an immunologically unique site that must promote tolerance to the allogenic fetus, whilst maintaining host defense against a diverse array of possible pathoge...
Immunology and Pregnancy Losses: HLA, Autoantibodies and Cellular Immunity
Joanne Kwak-Kim, Joon Woo Kim and Alice Gilman-Sachs
Pregnancy loss is the one of the most common obstetrical complications. The majority of pregnancy losses are random or isolated incidences that in many cases are related to genetic abnormalities. Ho...
Mamamalian Reproductive Tract and Placentation
Susan Richman and Frederick Naftolin
Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the internalization of reproduction and the develop ment of hemochorial placentation have been accompanied by conservation of primitive genitourinary genes. The p...
Interleukin-1 and Implantation
Jan-S. Krussel, Jens Hirchenhain, Andrea Schanz, Alexandra P. Hess, Hong-Yuan Huang, Carlos Sim—n and Mary Lake Polan
Infertility and pregnancy wastage affect one of every nine couples in Western Europe and in the United States. The molecular events of embryonic attachment to the endometrial epithelium and subseque...
B7 Family Molecules in the Placenta
Margaret G. Petroff
The mechanisms of acceptance of the fetus by the maternal immune system are mediated in part by immunomodulatory proteins expressed by placental cells. The recent discovery of novel members of the B...
Characterization of Human Dendritic Cells at the Maternal-Fetal Interphase
U. Kammerer, L. Rieger, A. Honig and E. Kampgen
The unusual tolerance against fetal antigens is still one of the greatest miracles of pregnancy. Dealing with reproductive immunology, the question arises as to how the maternal immune system handle...
The Role of Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone (CRH) on Implantation and Immunotolerance of the Fetus
Sophia N. Kalantaridou, Antonis Makrigiannakis, Emmanouil Zoumakis and George P. Chrousos
The hypothalamic neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), as well as its receptors, have been identified in several reproductive organs, including the endometrial glands, the decidualized...
Bi-directional Cell Trafficking During Pregnancy: Long-term Consequences for Human Health
Kristina M. Adams and J. Lee Nelson
During pregnancy some cells traffic between the fetus and mother and recent studies indicate low levels persist in the respective hosts decades later. Microchimerism (Mc) refers to a small populatio...
Th1/Th2 Balance of the Implantation Site in Humans
Shigeru Saito, Satomi Miyazaki and Yasushi Sasaki
Successful embryo implantation requires the synchronization of embryo development and uterine preparation. The embryo must have developed to the blastocyst stage and the endometrium must be in a rec...
