Immunology at the feto-maternal interface

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Immunology at the feto-maternal interface is written by Mahmood Jeddi-Tehrani and published by Frontiers Media SA. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 2832567487 (ISBN 10) and 9782832567487 (ISBN 13).

Reproductive biology is the mother of other areas in biology, as “Reproduction” had been the main strategy of simple and higher organisms to evolve. The utmost fitness in evolutionary tree is biological fitness, in being beneficial for successful reproduction. In this connection, reproductive sciences have been the focus of many research programs. Specifically, reproductive immunology has received the attention of researchers more than ever. This trend is largely due to the industrialization of societies, the increase in the age of marriage, and as a result, the decrease in fertility rates. On the other hand, despite significant advances in the field of artificial reproductive technologies, low success rate of embryo transfer is the main limiting factor for in vitro fertilization treatment. Therefore, understanding the immunological mechanisms of implantation and the adaptation of the immune cells of the pregnancy site, which leads to the maternal immunological tolerance to fetal antigens, is of utmost importance. Immunological alterations of the female reproductive tract commences from the first exposure to seminal plasma leading to molecular and cellular changes that increase the chance of conception and pregnancy through modulation of inflammatory responses and induction of paternal antigen-specific regulatory T cells. Steroid hormone-directed decidualization of endometrium is the first step for embryo implantation and placental development, which eventually leads to immunoregulation of the immune cells residing in the endometrium in favor of pregnancy. Following placental development, an extensive crosstalk begins among developing trophoblasts, decidualized endometrial stromal cells and the decidual immune cells and establishes a unique triangle for induction of maternal immune tolerance. All the processes of entire pregnancy are under the tight control of inflammation regulatory mechanisms. While acute inflammation is a triggering mechanism of embryo implantation and parturition, cell senescence associated with chronic inflammation in pregnancy-related disorders such endometriosis, chronic endometritis and hydrosalpinx is destructive and can lead to infertility or abortion.