Uterine natural killer cells: To protect and to nurture

During the course of pregnancy, the maternal‐fetal interface is tightly regulated and undergoes dynamic changes that promote the successful development of the semi‐allogeneic fetus. In response to embryo implantation, the uterus remodels with maternal immune cells occupying the maternal‐fetal interface and uterine natural killer (uNK) cells becoming the most prominent leukocyte. Recently, uNK cells have been discovered to be heterogeneous, including conventional NK and tissue‐resident NK cells. Here, we will review the recent advances in uNK cell biology and discuss their functional mechanisms which protect and nurture the growing fetus.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Birth Defects Research

• Publication date

  2018-11-22

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1002/bdr2.1419PMID 30467993PMCID PMC6309490
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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