PREGNANCY IMMUNOLOGY AND AUTOIMMUNE-DISEASE

The advent of molecular biologic techniques has resulted ill the recog nition of bidirectional traffic of cells at the maternal-fetal interfa ce. In this light, and because women are preferentially affected by a wide variety of autoimmune diseases, the subject of pregnancy immunolo gy is of special interest. That pregnancy often induces remission of r heumatoid arthritis is an intriguing biologic observation for which fu rther understanding may yield insights into disease pathogenesis. Anot her important question is the effect of pregnancy on susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. This question is highlighted by the recent findi ng that chimeric cells can persist for many years after pregnancy comp letion. At present, the biologic significance of microchimerism from p regnancy is an area of research that is for the most part unexplored.