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Immune mechanisms at the maternal-fetal interface: perspectives and challenges

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Leaders gathered at the US National Institutes of Health in November 2014 to discuss recent advances and emerging research areas in aspects of maternal-fetal immunity that may affect fetal development and pregnancy success.

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Figure 1: Classification of placentas based on histological assessment of the maternal-chorion interface.

Katie Vicari/Nature Publishing Group

Figure 2: Various immune cells interact with uterine and trophoblast cells during pregnancy.
Figure 3: Tolerance to the semiallogeneic fetus compared with organ transplantation.

Katie Vicari/Nature Publishing Group

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank P. Lenhart and D. Chakraborty for their time and effort in providing immunohistochemical sections for this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Mercy PrabhuDas

  2. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA

    Elizabeth Bonney

  3. Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    Kathleen Caron

  4. Division of Reproductive Sciences, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Sudhansu Dey

  5. Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Adrian Erlebacher

  6. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

    Asgerally Fazleabas

  7. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Susan Fisher

  8. Department of Comparative Biosciences, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    Thaddeus Golos

  9. Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA

    Martin Matzuk

  10. Division of Experimental Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital and University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Joseph M McCune

  11. Division of Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Gil Mor

  12. Division of Reproductive and Perinatal Research, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA

    Laura Schulz

  13. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute for Reproductive Health and Regenerative Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, USA

    Michael Soares

  14. Center for Reproductive Biology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

    Thomas Spencer

  15. Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Jack Strominger

  16. Division of Infectious Diseases, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Sing Sing Way

  17. Division of Extramural Research, Fertility and Infertility Branch, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Koji Yoshinaga

Authors
  1. Mercy PrabhuDas
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  2. Elizabeth Bonney
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  3. Kathleen Caron
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  4. Sudhansu Dey
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  6. Asgerally Fazleabas
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  7. Susan Fisher
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  8. Thaddeus Golos
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  9. Martin Matzuk
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  10. Joseph M McCune
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  11. Gil Mor
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  12. Laura Schulz
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  13. Michael Soares
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  14. Thomas Spencer
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  15. Jack Strominger
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  16. Sing Sing Way
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  17. Koji Yoshinaga
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mercy PrabhuDas.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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PrabhuDas, M., Bonney, E., Caron, K. et al. Immune mechanisms at the maternal-fetal interface: perspectives and challenges. Nat Immunol 16, 328–334 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3131

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