Definition
The immunologic mechanisms that protect the human subject from microbial, viral, or other organism-derived antigen.
Introduction
In the field of immunology, the study of human pregnancy is perhaps one of the most perplexing topics. A tightly regulated and nuanced balancing act exists between the ability of the maternal host to accept specific foreign paternally derived alloantigens to allow fertilization and support ongoing pregnancy and her need to respond properly to pathogenic invaders, commensals, cell damage, and malignant transformation. The maternal immune system is repeatedly challenged with fetal/paternal alloantigens throughout the reproductive process starting with exposure to semen, continuing through implantation and placentation, and perhaps lasting several decades after delivery in the form of fetal microchimerism. Likewise, invasion of microorganisms or soluble microbial...
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References
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Schust, D., Bollig, K. (2020). Pathogen Protection. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_735-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_735-1
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