uNK Cells and the Placenta: The Immune System’s Role in Healthy Early Pregnancy, Conversation with Dr. Ashley Moffett, Part I

Although your OB usually doesn’t want to see you in the early weeks of pregnancy—there’s a lot going on that is of critical importance to the ease or complications of a pregnancy—specifically , the introduction of fetus to your uterine lining, and the subsequent merging, if implantation happens.

The weeks that follow are equally consequential. Exactly how those cells of your uterine lining negotiate the migration of trophoblast cells, fetal cells that are building the placenta can be the difference between preeclampsia, premature birth intra uterine growth restriction and a normal pregnancy. One main negotiator of this migration is a specific type of immune cell, uNK cells. Today we talk to a world expert on how certain elements of the immune cell function in early pregnancy.

Dr. Ashley Moffett's 2022 paper in Nature Review Immunology: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9527719/#Sec1