Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Selective expansion and CMV-dependency in pregnancy trained human endometrial NK cells

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 16, pages 410–411 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes that specialize in discriminating and killing altered self-cells, such as malignant and virus-infected cells. However, during pregnancy, local uterine NK cells do not exhibit this killing capacity and display an important regulatory role by promoting trophoblast invasion and spiral artery remodeling and ensuring correct placentation.1 Over the past decade, it has become clear that NK cells possess adaptive properties and innate immune memory.2 In humans, memory NK cells have mainly been described as expansions of NKG2C+ and LILRB1+ peripheral blood NK cells (pbNK),3 and pbNK cell subpopulation expansions expressing self-specific killer-immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR)4 following cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection.

It is known that pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction affect subsequent pregnancies less frequently compared to first pregnancies.5,6 Pregnancy in repeated pregnancies is also enhanced in terms of more extensive and earlier trophoblast invasion, vascularization, and angiogenesis.7 Since 70% of first trimester lymphocytes in the placenta are NK cells and play such a crucial role in proper placentation, it is plausible that pregnancy could induce NK cell memory. The induction of such pregnancy trained NK cells could play a beneficial role in a more efficient placentation in future gestations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1

References

  1. Moffett, A. & Colucci, F. Uterine NK cells: active regulators at the maternal-fetal interface. J. Clin. Invest. 124, 1872–1879 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. O’Sullivan, T. E., Sun, J. C. & Lanier, L. L. Natural killer cell memory. Immunity 43, 634–645 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Guma, M. et al. Imprint of human cytomegalovirus infection on the NK cell receptor repertoire. Blood 104, 3664–3671 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Beziat, V. et al. NK cell responses to cytomegalovirus infection lead to stable imprints in the human KIR repertoire and involve activating KIRs. Blood 121, 2678–2688 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kozuki, N. et al. The associations of parity and maternal age with small-for-gestational-age, preterm, and neonatal and infant mortality: a meta-analysis. BMC Public Health 13(Suppl 3), S2 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hernandez-Diaz, S., Toh, S. & Cnattingius, S. Risk of pre-eclampsia in first and subsequent pregnancies: prospective cohort study. BMJ 338, b2255 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Prefumo, F., Ganapathy, R., Thilaganathan, B. & Sebire, N. J. Influence of parity on first trimester endovascular trophoblast invasion. Fertil. Steril. 85, 1032–1036 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Gamliel, M. et al. Trained memory of human uterine NK cells enhances their function in subsequent pregnancies. Immunity 48, 951–62 e5 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Adams, N. M. et al. NK cell responses redefine immunological memory. J. Immunol. 197, 2963–2970 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Peppa, D. et al. Adaptive reconfiguration of natural killer cells in HIV-1 infection. Front. Immunol. 9, 474 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Feyaerts, D. et al. Endometrial natural killer (NK) cells reveal a tissue-specific receptor repertoire. Hum. Reprod. 33, 441–451 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Laboratory for Medical Immunology, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, 6500HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    D. Feyaerts, A. van der Meer, I. Joosten & R. G. van der Molen

Authors
  1. D. Feyaerts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. van der Meer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. I. Joosten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. R. G. van der Molen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. G. van der Molen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Feyaerts, D., van der Meer, A., Joosten, I. et al. Selective expansion and CMV-dependency in pregnancy trained human endometrial NK cells. Cell Mol Immunol 16, 410–411 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-018-0193-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-018-0193-x

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links