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Dendritic Cells: Key to Fetal Tolerance?¹

University Medicine of Berlin,⁴ Charité Centrum 12, Internal Medicine and Dermatology, Campus Virchow, 13353 Berlin, Germany Department of Biological Sciences,⁵ University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester C04 3SQ, United Kingdom Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics,⁶ University of Würzburg, D-97080, Würzburg, Germany Department of Microbiology,⁷ Parasitology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, C1121ABG Buenos Aires, Argentina Department of Physiology and Immunology,⁸ Medical Faculty, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute and Department of Surgery,⁹ University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

ABSTRACT

Pregnancy is a unique event in which a fetus, despite being genetically and immunologically different from the mother (a hemi-allograft), develops in the uterus. Successful pregnancy implies avoidance of rejection by the maternal immune system. Fetal and maternal immune cells come into direct contact at the decidua, which is a highly specialized mucous membrane that plays a key role in fetal tolerance. Uterine dendritic cells (DC) within the decidua have been implicated in pregnancy maintenance. DC serve as antigen-presenting cells with the unique ability to induce primary immune responses. Just as lymphocytes comprise different subsets, DC subsets have been identified that differentially control lymphocyte function. DC may also act to induce immunologic tolerance and regulation of T cell-mediated immunity. Current understanding of DC immunobiology within the context of mammalian fetal-maternal tolerance is reviewed and discussed herein.

decidua, dendritic cells, placenta, tolerance

³These authors contributed equally to this work.

¹Supported by grants from Charité (to S.M.B. and P.C.A.), DFG (KFO-124/2 to U.K.), and the Croatian Ministry of Science (0376-0377 to D.R.). S.M.B. is supported by Charité (Habilitations-Stipendium), and C.A.S. and G.B. are supported by fellowships from CONICET and DAAD, respectively. S.M.B., P.C.A., and D.R. are part of the EMBIC Network of Excellence, which is cofinanced by the European Commission through the FP6 framework program "Life Science, Genomics and Biotechnology for Health."

Correspondence: ²Sandra M. Blois, Charité Centrum 12, Internal Medicine and Dermatology, BMFZ, Raum 2.0547, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353 Berlin, Germany. FAX: 49 30 450 553997; e-mail: sandra.blois{at}charite.de or smblois{at}essex.ac.uk