Aa. Ashkar et Ba. Croy, Functions of uterine natural killer cells are mediated by interferon gammaproduction during murine pregnancy, SEMIN IMMUN, 13(4), 2001, pp. 235-241
The dominant lymphocytes in healthy human and murine implantation sites are
pregnancy-associated uterine natural killer (uNK) cells. These cells produ
ce 90% of pregnancy-induced, uterine interferon (IFN)-gamma, a cytokine tha
t regulates expression of more than 0.5% of the mouse genome. Implantation
sites in uNK cell-deficient and IFN-gamma -signal-disrupted mice display an
omalies in decidua and its spiral arteries. Reconstruction of uNK cell-defi
cient females with bone marrow containing normal NK cell progenitors, estab
lishes uNK cells and reverses the anomalies. Grafts from IFN-gamma (-/-) mi
ce are restored uNK cells, but the uNK cells did not reverse the phenotypes
. This review focusses on the functions of uNK cell-derived IFN-gamma and t
he genes that it may regulate in the pregnant uterus.