Immunology of the maternal-placental interface in normal pregnancy.

Abstract

early 1950s of the unique immunology of the maternal-fetal interface and its potential relevance for transplantation in the classic article entitled: “Some immunological and endocrinological problems raised by the evolution of viviparity in vertebrates.“’ The approaches in the next 30 years used the methods and hypotheses then current for transplantation immunology. Some of this work has uncovered valid mechanisms that are truely present and play important roles in the tolerance of the fetoplacental unit either in the human or in other mammals. However, further refinement in our understanding both of immunology and of reproduction has identified some of these mechanisms as “epiphenomena.” Epiphenomena are observations which represent real biological phenomena that are associated with, in an accessory manner, but not essential or causal for a process. In this setting they can represent phenomena that either never were important (“noise”) or are no longer (evolutionarily) requisite to successful pregnancy. Significant species variability of immune interactions at the maternal-placental interface have