Abstract
Human implantation is accompanied by extensive invasion of uterine tissue by trophoblast cells. Besides anchoring the placenta to the uterus, these cells also perform the important function of converting decidual spiral arteries from highly resistant vessels into flaccid sinusoidal tubes that are no longer responsive to vasoconstrictive influences, thus allowing the maintenance of an adequate blood flow to the fetoplacental unit under all physiological conditions (1). Normal pregnancy depends on this vascular adaptation by trophoblast, without which a variety of obstetrical problems, such as preeclampsia, intrauterine growth retardation, or still birth, will result (2). The factors that control this trophoblast invasion are not known, but are likely to be contributed by uterine cells or matrix proteins encountered en route by trophoblast during its migration. In this chapter we focus on the potential immunological or paraimmunological processes that could take place between trophoblast and the population oflarge granular lymphocytes (LGL) present in decidua because there are many characteristics of these two cell types that suggest they are able to interact with each other.
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Loke, Y.W., King, A., Chumbley, G. (1993). Human Trophoblast-Uterine Immunological Interactions. In: Soares, M.J., Talamantes, F., Handwerger, S. (eds) Trophoblast Cells. Serono Symposia, USA Norwell, Massachusetts. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2718-2_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2718-2_10
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