Immunology of Pregnancy and its Disorders

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. The Nature of the Feto-maternal Physiological Relationship

   • M. Young

   Pages 1-32

3. New and Old Aspects of the Ontogeny of Immune Responses

   • M. Adinolfi

   Pages 33-59

4. Human Trophoblast Antigens

   • Y. W. Loke

   Pages 61-89

5. Pregnancy Proteins and Hormones in the Immune Response of Pregnancy

   • A. Klopper

   Pages 91-113

6. Maternal Immune Responses to the Fetus in Human Pregnancy

   • I. L. Sargent, C. W. G. Redman

   Pages 115-141

7. The Immunology of Diseases of Pregnancy

   • G. M. Stirrat

   Pages 143-164

8. Immunotherapy in Reproductive Disorders

   • A. E. Beer

   Pages 165-195

9. Genetics of Reproduction

   • C. M. M. Stern

   Pages 197-214

10. Back Matter

    Pages 215-222

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The purpose of this book is to describe the nature of the materno-fetal immunobiological relationship and to suggest the direction in which the management of reproduction and its failure in man is moving. The several authors, who have written about their special fields of interest, need to be read within a framework designed to blend their contributions into a whole. This preamble provides a part of that framework, by describing the early development of the embryo, that of the placenta and its membranes and their anatomical relationship with maternal tissues: in other words, the stage upon which this materno-fetal dialogue takes place. Professor Maureen Young's 'tour de force', encapsulating the whole of fetal physiology into a single chapter, completes the background information. After Maureen Young's summary of fetal physiology, Matteo Adinolfi describes the development of the immune system in the fetus, including new information that allows more accurate speculation concerning the gestational age at which fetal immune responses of various kinds may begin. Charles Loke examines the nature of antigens which are found in the placenta, concentrating on those which occur on syncytiotrophoblast and suggesting roles for them in fetal development. Arnold Klopper covers the wide range of proteins and hormones which have been studied during pregnancy and found to vary in a potentially significant way. He has been careful to distinguish between observation and hypothesis, as far as any immunomodulating action is concerned, and his analysis is a model of scientific scepticism.

• Antigen
• diseases
• fetus
• genetics
• hormones
• immunotherapy
• pregnancy
• proteins
• reproduction

• Department of Pediatrics, St Thomas’s Hospital, UK

  C. M. M. Stern

Policies and ethics