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Immunological homeostasis at the ovine placenta may reflect the degree of maternal foetal interaction

Wattegedera, Sean R; Doull, Laura E; Goncheva, Mariya I; Wheelhouse, Nick; Watson, Donna M; Pearce, Julian; Benavides, Julio; Palarea-Albaladejo, Javier; Mcinnes, Colin J; Ballingall, Keith; Entrican, Gary

Authors

Sean R Wattegedera

Laura E Doull

Mariya I Goncheva

Donna M Watson

Julian Pearce

Julio Benavides

Javier Palarea-Albaladejo

Colin J Mcinnes

Keith Ballingall

Gary Entrican



Abstract

Successful mammalian pregnancies are a result of complex physiological, endocrinological and immunological processes that combine to create an environment where the mother is tolerant to the semi-allogeneic fetus. Our knowledge of the mechanisms that
contribute to maternal tolerance is derived mainly from human and murine studies of haemochorial placentation. However, as this
is the most invasive type of placentation it cannot be assumed that identical mechanisms apply to the less invasive epitheliochorial
placentation found in other species such as ruminants. Here, we examine three features associated with reproductive immune
regulation in a transformed ovine trophoblast cell line and ex-vivo ovine reproductive tissues collected at term, namely: major
histocompatibility complex (MHC) expression, Indoleamine 2, 3 dioxygenase-1 (IDO-1) expression and Natural Killer (NK) cell
infiltration. High levels of MHC class I protein expression were detected at the surface of the trophoblast cell line using a pan-MHC
class I specific monoclonal antibody. The majority of MHC class I transcripts isolated from the cell line clustered with classical MHC
alleles. Transcriptional analysis of placental tissues identified only classical MHC class I transcripts. We found no evidence of
constitutive transcription of IDO-1 in either the trophoblast cell line or placental tissues. Ex-vivo tissues collected from the
materno-fetal interface were negative for cells expressing NKp46/NCR1. Collectively, these observations suggest that the relatively non-invasive synepitheliochorial placentation found in sheep has a more limited requirement for local immunoregulation compared to the more invasive haemochorial placentation of primates and rodents.

Citation

Wattegedera, S. R., Doull, L. E., Goncheva, M. I., Wheelhouse, N., Watson, D. M., Pearce, J., …Entrican, G. (2019). Immunological homeostasis at the ovine placenta may reflect the degree of maternal foetal interaction. Frontiers in Immunology, 9, https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.03025

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 11, 2018
Online Publication Date Jan 9, 2019
Publication Date Jan 9, 2019
Deposit Date Dec 11, 2018
Publicly Available Date Dec 11, 2018
Journal Frontiers in Immunology
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 9
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.03025
Keywords Ovine, Major Histocompatibility Complex, Indoleamine 2, 3 dioxygenase-1, synepitheliochorial placentation, trophoblast
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1432856

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