Endocrine Abstracts

Pregnancy is a puzzling phenomenon for researches as it defies the rules of immunology. The immune system of a pregnant woman is able to both tolerate the foreign while being alert to possible harm. It is now known that paternal antigens expressed by the fetus are not ignored but actively tolerated by the maternal immune system. Pregnancy hormones may have a pivotal role on the modulation of immune cell functions. We have described the important participation of the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in the regulation of immune responses during pregnancy. During this lecture, special emphasis will be put on the modulation of regulatory T cells and regulatory B cells. Data obtained from animal models as well as from patient’s samples will be discussed.

Disclosure: This work was supported by the German Research Council ZE 526/7-1.