REVIEW ARTICLE: Immunology of Pre‐Eclampsia

Pre-eclampsia develops in stages, only the last being the clinical illness. This is generated by a non-specific, systemic (vascular), inflammatory response, secondary to placental oxidative stress and not by reactivity to fetal alloantigens. However, maternal adaptation to fetal (paternal alloantigens) is crucial in the earlier stages. A pre-conceptual phase involves maternal tolerization to paternal antigens by seminal plasma. After conception, regulatory T cells, interacting with indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, together with decidual NK cell recognition of fetal HLA-C on extravillous trophoblast may facilitate placental growth by immunoregulation. Complete failure of this mechanism would cause miscarriage,…

• WT
  Wellcome Trust
• NI
  National Institute for Health and Care Research