dale1994's version from 2016-05-05 12:40


Question Answer
Placenta consists of...thousands of branched fingers called chorionic villi that project into the endometrium with the surrounding maternal blood vessels breaking down to form maternal blood sinuses
Placental villus composed of...syncytiotrophoblasts/cytotrophoblasts/mesenchymal core
Extravilous cytotrophoblasts form..columns of cells that invade into the maternal decidua which replace the endothelium of spiral arteries in the decidua and myometrium
lacking mhc?Syncytiotrophoblasts lack both classical MHC class 1 and MHC class 2 antigen which prevents destruction by cytotoxic T cells
atypical mhc?atypical MHC isotyped HLA-e and HLA-G are expressed which prevents destruction by NK cells
Key placenta points?short diffusion distances/ slow movement of blood/ transport proteins present/ syncytium is formed
Explanation for non-rejection?Uterus is an immune priviliged site/ foetus is non-immunogenic and trophoblastic tissue is non-antigenic/ anatomical barrier/ suppression in the vicinity
NK cells- immune cells constitute 40% cells in the decidua -85% of these are NK cells with a CD56bright CD16- phenotype -may facilitate tissue invasion/remodelling -more efficient in secreting cytokines
depletion of NK cells?in mouse decidue results in inadequate changes in maternal blood vessels that normally occur following implantation
dNK-derived?interferon (IFNy) positively regulates the diameter of the lumen of blood vessels during decidualisation
foetal trophoblasts attrack NK through?stromal cell-derived factor 1 & macrophage inflammatory protein 1a

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