Submission Number: GOL-4-417-191

Abstract Number: 2

THE NONCLASSICS REVISITED: MHC CLASS I EXPRESSION AT THE MATERNAL-FETAL INTERFACE IN THE NONHUMAN PRIMATE.

T Golos ¹, I Slukvin ², R Kravitz ¹, R Grendell ¹ and D Watkins ²

Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center and Depts. Of Ob-Gyn, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI ¹
Path/Lab Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA. ²

Abstract:
The special circumstance of the semiallogeneic fetus has intrigued reproductive immunologists at a basic level, and may have significance for pathological circumstances which negatively impact on maternal and fetal health and well-being. The close homology between the human and nonhuman primate maternal-fetal interface prompted our molecular and cellular investigations of placental MHC class I molecules in the rhesus monkey. Whereas the human placenta expresses the nonclassical molecules HLA-G and HLA-E, the rhesus expresses Mamu-E, Mamu-G (a pseudogene), and a functional homolog of HLA-G, designated Mamu-AG. There are important parallels between the expression of HLA-G and Mamu-AG. In particular, both molecules are expressed in trophoblasts invading and remodeling the vessels and stroma of the uterine decidua during early pregnancy, which suggests that there may be an important role of placental nonclassical MHC class I molecules in the establishment of pregnancy in hemochorial implantation. Putative monitors of trophoblast MHC class I molecules in the uterine endometrium, the decidual natural killer (NK) cells also express very similar phenotypes within the human and rhesus decidua, but differ from peripheral NK cells. The rhesus monkey will be a valuable model for physiological studies of trophoblast-NK cell interactions in normal and pathological settings of pregnancy.

Keywords: decidua, placenta, MHC, rhesus monkey

This abstract is being presented at: 11:00 AM in session:
Minisymposium VIII: IMMUNE PRIVILEGE IN THE PREGNANT UTERUS