Pregnancy and Immune Response – How Your Body and Your Foetus Interact
In this resource article we’ll be discussing how a mother’s immune response can have an impact on their pregnancy, what happens throughout a pregnancy, and what that means for you.
Conception and Immune Tolerance
At conception, the genes of 2 individuals come together to create the embryo, and later, the foetus. This means that throughout a pregnancy, 2 genetically distinct individuals are coexisting – the mother, and the embryo/foetus.
Typically, this genetic difference doesn’t cause any problems as there are a variety of mechanisms and pathways that result in what is termed ‘maternal immune tolerance’. This means that the mother’s body does not see the embryo/foetus as a foreign body and try to attack or expel it, as it would for any other foreign body.
These immune interactions between the mother’s body and the embryo/foetus take place across the lining of the uterus, the outer layer of the embryo/foetus’s cells, and at the implantation site of the embryo (where it physically meets the mother’s body) that will gradually develop and grow into the placenta.
In this animation you can see the full journey from fertilisation, to implantation and placentation, and the growth of an embryo into a foetus and a baby.
©️ Sydney Reproductive Immunology 2021
Maintaining the Balance and Potential Impacts
As the placenta continues to grow over the course of the pregnancy (placentation), the foetus’s demands for nutrients, energy, and oxygen grow as well. In order for the foetus to continue receiving these essential resources, the mother’s body must continue to tolerate the growing and changing foetus.
In some cases, however, problems can arise resulting in the mother’s immune system no longer tolerating the foetus. In cases like these, complications can be severe, including first- or second-trimester miscarriage, foetal death in utero, restrictions to the growth of the foetus, preterm labour, preterm premature rupture of membranes and preeclampsia.
At Sydney Reproductive Immunology (SRI), we provide monitoring to identify issues associated with this immune balance, and treatments tailored to your individual clinical situation. If you’d like to learn more or speak with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch via our ‘Request a Consultation’ page.
For Healthcare Providers
Various mechanisms and pathways interact to reach a state of maternal immune tolerance of the embryo/foeto-placental unit to achieve a state of immune evasion of the embryo to the maternal immune system.
Various cells including lymphocytes and proteins at the decidual/trophoblast interface control the process of maternal immune tolerance and foetal immune evasion.
Placentation is reliant on maternal immune system acceptance and tolerance for continuing growth and development of placental tissue.
Defects in placentation may result in first- or second-trimester miscarriage, foetal death in utero, placental insufficiency, foetal growth restriction, preeclampsia.
Please don’t hesitate to be in touch regarding SRI’s consulting services.