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Chapter-09 Immunology of Pregnancy

BOOK TITLE: Essentials of Obstetrics

Author
1. Rao A Padma
ISBN
9788184489095
DOI
10.5005/jp/books/11242_9
Edition
2/e
Publishing Year
2011
Pages
8
Author Affiliations
1. Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Karnataka India, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Karnataka, India
Chapter keywords

Abstract

Edward Jenner performed effective immunization against smallpox more than 200 years ago. Nevertheless the discipline of immunology is hardly four decades old and that of pregnancy immunology is only two decades old and is now a mature discipline. Immune responses in the placenta and in the mother in normal pregnancy differ in many ways from the classical immune responses. The fetal allograft which is 50 percent foreign to the mother is not rejected. The mother not only develops immune tolerance to the fetus and placenta, but also provides the fetus means to achieve immunocompetence including passive immunity by transfer of maternal IgG. Many of the disorders of pregnancy may be caused by alteration in the various beneficial immunological responses of normal pregnancy. A brief account of basic immunology will be followed by the beneficial alterations in immunology in normal pregnancy and their aberration in abnormal pregnancy. The most important cells of the immune system are the lymphocytes; the B-lymphocytes and T-lymphocytes. Other cells that orchestrate with the lymphocytes are the macrophages, other leukocytes and natural killer cells. Besides cells, innumerable agents also join in this process. They are complements and cytokines. T-cell lymphocytes are of 3 types: T-helper cell, cytotoxic T-cell, and suppressor T-cell. T-helper cell is the commander-in-chief, because it regulates and controls the action of almost all the cells and if it fails the entire immune system collapses as happens in the disease—AIDS.

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