How do regulatory T cells influence materno-fetal tolerance?

在怀孕期间，母亲是婴儿的宿主，婴儿的一半基因来自父亲。这意味着，实际上，婴儿的行为就像是移植的组织，可以被母亲的免疫系统排斥。这种情况通常不会发生的原因尚不清楚。我们的实验室最近发现，在怀孕期间，一种特殊类型的免疫细胞(调节性T细胞)的数量会增加，我们相信这可能会防止婴儿发生排斥反应。这项研究将检验这些细胞对成功怀孕很重要的观点，并找出反复流产的女性会发生什么。如果成功，这项工作将对我们如何治疗反复流产的妇女产生重大影响。它还将增加我们对免疫系统如何运作的了解。

During pregnancy, the mother is host to a baby of which half the genes are from the father. This means that in effect, the baby acts like a transplanted tissue and can be rejected by the mothers immune system. The reason why this does not normally happen is not known. Our laboratory has recently shown that during pregnancy a special type of immune cell (the regulatory T cell) increases in number and we believe it may prevent rejection of the baby. This study will test the idea that these cells are important in successful pregnancy and find out what happens in women who repeatedly lose pregnancies. If successful, this work will have a major impact on how we treat women who experience recurrent abortion. It will also increase our knowledge of how the immune system functions.