Author: Merentsova Anastasia
Translator: Issabayeva Madina
Copy editor: Kigbaeva Kamila
Researchers at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Ohio, have been searching for answers to basic questions about pregnancy and, in particular, immunological disorders, which will help reduce miscarriages in the future, prevent stillbirth and avoid other complications associated with pregnancy, including preterm birth.
According to doctors, during pregnancy there are some changes in the woman’s immune system, which subsequently helps prevent fetal rejection by the body and maintain a fragile immunological balance. Alas, this balance is sometimes not observed due to environmental influences or physiological changes. As a result, this leads to complications and, in some cases, to the loss of the child.
In the body of a future mother, CD8 + T cells specific for the fetus accumulate, therefore women “remember” their children immunologically, because these cells retain active memory even after childbirth.
The expression of membrane proteins of the superfamily of immunoglobulins PD-1 and LAG-3 with the so-called T-memory cells (a type of T-lymphocytes that store information about previously acting antigens and form a secondary immune response that occurs faster than the primary one) reminds the cells that they again must be tolerant to the developing fetus. However, molecular disorders that neutralize the expression of these proteins activate maternal CD8 + T cells and cause miscarriage - this happens selectively and not during the first pregnancy.
According to the authors of the work, the first and subsequent pregnancies work in completely different ways, and understanding these differences can lead to an improvement in treatment methods aimed at unique, individuals for each woman immunological disorders that occur during the first and later pregnancies.
Sourse: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(20)30764-6
