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19 November 2019 Natural killer cells: functional differences in recurrent spontaneous abortion
Fan Hao, Xiangyu Zhou, Liping Jin
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Abstract

Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) is one of the major pregnancy disorders and poses a serious risk to both the mother and the fetus. Although a number of research efforts have been conducted, therapeutic advances for treating RSA have not lived up to their expectations. Hence, other treatments should be explored. The important role of natural killer (NK) cells in immunotherapy is attracting increasing attention, both as a pharmaceutical target and for cell therapies. NK cells are abundant in the endometrium and play a role in implantation and placentation in normal pregnancy. As research progresses, NK cells are increasingly regarded as playing essential roles in the emergence and development of RSA. In this article, I review recent findings on the role of uterine NK cells in the pathophysiology of RSA. These cells may become therapeutic NK cell-related targets. In conclusion, although several issues regarding NK cells in RSA remain unresolved and require further investigation, extensive evidence is available for the treatment of RSA.

Summary Sentence

In this review, we focus on recent research on the features and function of NK cell subsets, particularly decidual NK cells in maternal-fetal interface and their potential role in RSA.

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Society for the Study of Reproduction. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com
Fan Hao, Xiangyu Zhou, and Liping Jin "Natural killer cells: functional differences in recurrent spontaneous abortion," Biology of Reproduction 102(3), 524-531, (19 November 2019). https://doi.org/10.1093/biolre/ioz203
Received: 20 November 2018; Accepted: 21 October 2019; Published: 19 November 2019
KEYWORDS
arterial remodeling
natural killer cells
placenta
pregnancy
tissue-resident natural killer cells
trophoblast
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